Kalaupapa National Historical Park Student Interns

Community Contributed

By T. Scott Williams

Aloha from Kalaupapa! On behalf of the National Park Service staff, I would like you to meet the student interns working with the Cultural Resource Management (CRM) Division this summer.

The CRM Division of Kalaupapa National Historical Park is excited to be joined this summer by a wonderful group of interns. The variety of skills and knowledge that the interns bring to the park reflects the park’s efforts to enhance and preserve cultural resources. Through their work, each intern will gain a greater understanding of the significance of Kalaupapa and its unique cultural resources.

From left to right: Micah Stephenson, Megan Borthwick, Tyra Mollena, Maverick Kaulia-Delacruz, and Hoku Kaawaloa

Megan Borthwick is helping with the promotion and development for new content of the park’s website, assisting with new exhibits in the settlement and working on compliance for planning/implementation of future park projects. Megan is a student intern, completing her Masters degree in Historic Preservation at the University of Oregon. Megan is from Oahu and has a family connection to Kalaupapa. Her great, great grandfather lived in the settlement in the 1920s and is buried here.

Micah Stephenson from Oahu is an undergraduate student within the Environmental Studies and Hawaiian Studies Programs at University of Hawaii, Hilo. Micah has been working on several projects within the cultural resources and museum program including the Kalaupapa Patient Register Project, which involves transcribing data from the Hawaii State Archives from 1866-1932. This will create a searchable database that will be available on the park’s website in the near future. Micah also has a family connection with the settlement. His great, great grandfather was sent to Kalaupapa and is buried here.

Tyra Mollena will be a Molokai High School senior this year and has been assisting in museum collections, archeological mapping and other aspects of cultural resource management.

Maverick Kaulia-Delacruz, a recent Molokai High School graduate, and Hoku Kaawaloa, who comes Hawaii Island, have been very busy with the vegetation removal in the cemeteries and other locations through-out the settlement.

The CRM staff at Kalaupapa National Historical Park would like to give a big mahalo to all the interns for their innovative ideas, talent and knowledge that will be well utilized to enhance the park overall.