Island Youth

Maritime Career Fair

Wednesday, April 12th, 2023

By Jack Kiyonaga, Reporter 

A career fair last week highlighted opportunities in maritime fields, part of an effort to “keep local people in the local waterfronts,” according to Marimed Foundation CEO Melissa Herbert. 

Marimed is a Hawaii nonprofit that offers vocational training, education and community programs for youth, with a focus on maritime opportunities. Along with entities such as Young Brothers and Seafarers International Union, Marimed staff visited the UH Maui College, Molokai (UHMCM) campus  on April 6 for the career fair. 

Olelo Schonely Spencer, Career and Technical Educational Specialist at UHMCM, explained that the fair was “an attempt to help get our kids and local community motivated to look towards a career in maritime.” …

Recipe for Success

Wednesday, April 5th, 2023

By Jack Kiyonaga, Reporter 

For Molokai High School (MHS) Junior Shazen Bush, cooking became an interest when a friend needed help at their food truck. Marcus Hubbard starting cooking at home, making meals with his mother. Timika McLaurin also found herself inspired by family members creating meals. Last week, all three students and 10 of their MHS Culinary Club classmates found themselves at the Four Seasons Resort in Maui, shadowing cooks and learning about what a life in the kitchen could really look like.  

“The point of the trip was to get them to taste the world,” said MHS Culinary Club founder and advisor Tiare Hubbard.…

Molokai Robotics: A Legacy of Learning

Wednesday, March 29th, 2023

By Catherine Cluett Pactol | Editor

Preparing for their regional competition on Oahu, Molokai High School robotics students spent their spring break practicing the delicate art of maneuvering blocks onto three levels using a robot they designed, built and programmed over the past several months. In the competition, they form alliances with teams from around the world, with a dozen other students and their robots all competing to perform the same tasks on a basketball-court-sized competition field. It’s a high-tech, high-pressure activity that costs thousands of dollars just to enter. 

But in their tiny workshop set up on Molokai High cafeteria’s stage area, students use the tools they have. …

A’o Aku; A’o Mai: What I Learn, I Teach

Wednesday, March 29th, 2023

Community Contributed

By Sara Jane Larkin, Teacher

In Kilohana School’s first grade class, one of our students had a loss of a family pet and he was grieving. I took the opportunity to talk a little bit about loss and grief with them. At the end of our conversation, I asked them to think of an animal or a person or even an experience where they had grief or loss, to close their eyes until they had a memory in their heart that made them smile when they thought about it. And this beautiful poem is the result, a composite written by all my students and myself. …

MHS Robot Takes the Spotlight

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023

By Catherine Cluett Pactol | Editor

The Molokai High School robotics team has built a masterpiece over the past several months – and they’re gearing up to compete with it this week at 2023 FIRST Robotics Hawaii Regional on Oahu, where they will be facing off against other teams from Hawaii, the continental U.S. as well as China, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia. Between March 23-25, the team will be showcasing their robot’s abilities to complete tasks like moving and placing cones and cubes, as well as the months of work they’ve put into designing, building, programming, practicing and overcoming obstacles with creativity and limited resources.…