About Hui o Hoʻohonua

Hui o Hoʻohonua (HOH808) is a non-profit created as a community management and empowerment organization. Through the Mālama Puʻuloa program, they believe that the community has the power to restore Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor) to its historical abundance, and they strive to involve the community in every way possible.

Their mission is to end the perpetuation of historical trauma to the land, water and people in the ʻEwa Moku on Oʻahu by harnessing the power of the community. To this end, their programs include engagement at all age levels from kindergarten to kūpuna with the aim of providing resource management and restoration through culturally relevant means. They actively seek out new partnerships and constantly work to increase funding and workforce. This also includes impacting resource management policy and policy makers, along with finding new and innovative ways to collaborate with the Navy.

Meet Our Internship Mentor: Sandy Ward

Sandy was raised in Oregon, and served as a science teacher at Mililani High School for 25 years. She retired from teaching in 2019 and co-founded the non-profit Hui o Hoʻohonua at the promptings of Uncle Emmett Aluli to mālama or take care of your own backyard.Her students took this call to kuleana, to heart, and her response was to form a restoration project in their area of Pearl Harbor. Sandy’s role in Mālama Puʻuloa is to build pilina – or relationship – with other individuals and organizations to build pathways for the next generation of young Hawaiian leaders.

Internship duties and responsibilities:

Students will have an opportunity to actively contribute to a variety of roles with Mālama Puʻuloa in the areas of Communication, Education, and Restoration. That could include activities ranging from creating digital media to conducting community outreach, to clearing invasive species from streams and fishponds. The building of pilina and networking is just as important as the physical labor of clearing and restoring the land. So students should be prepared to practice their communication skills in addition to working out in nature. Students will create an internship project that best suits their personal interests and skills.

For a list of projects with Mālama Puʻuloa, CLICK HERE.

Interns should be comfortable with and able to:

• Working on a team
• Communicating with others
• Getting dirty
• Working with your hands

2023 Internship Schedule:

The schedule for this internship will consist of both online (synchronous/asynchronous) and in-person meetings. Students will participate in this internship for 2 consecutive weeks in June.