Intern Spotlight: Aloha Kapono

Aloha Kākou,

My name is Aloha Kapono, and this Fall I will be entering my second year in the Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science (TCBES) graduate program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. I am pursuing the Professional Internship Track at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s Spatial Data Analysis & Visualization (SDAV) Research laboratory. I am honored to have been granted the Native American Jump Start Grant as it will support me to pursue avenues in academia that will nurture me as a scientist of the next generation that will impart positive change for my community and this place I call home, Hawaiʻi. I am even more motivated than before to continue this journey as a young Native Hawaiian girl from a small town aspiring to make a difference for the home that has instilled within me a responsibility to be a steward to this ʻāina (land).