Ep 18. Hoʻākeolapono Trades Academy with Lawaia Naihe

In this episode we speak with Lawaia Naihe, Executive Director at Hoʻākeolapono Trades Academy & Institute, a nonprofit  based out of Anahola, Kauai on Department of Hawaiian Homelands land. Hoʻākeolaponoʻs mission is to provide the Hawaiian community with cutting-edge vocational training across high-demand trades, with a special focus on problem-solving and lifelong learning. The nonprofit is geared toward career technical secondary students and has already partnered with several public schools to deliver its programs. The nonprofit was designed to increase employment and advancement opportunities by providing students with crucial building and construction knowledge and multidisciplinary, 21st-century trade skills.   

Brought to you by University of Hawaii College of Tropical Ag. and Human Resources, and the Seeds of Well-being (SOW) Project. This podcast is supported by the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

#wellness #mentalhealth #farming #agriculture #stress #hawaii #stressmanagement #agproducers #aquaculture #kalo #taro #sustainability  #environmentalstewardship #watershed #hawaiianhomelands

Resources:
Mālama Hulē'ia Website

Find out more about us:

• Seeds Of Wellbeing website
• Seeds of Wellbeing Resource Hub
• All the SOW links

Transcript

Thao: 0:00

The views information or opinions expressed during the Seeds of Wellbeing series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources our funders, and any affiliated organizations involved in this project. Welcome to a Seeds of Wellbeing"Voices from the field" podcast, featuring voices of Hawaii agriculture producers for Hawaii agriculture producers. These podcasts are made possible by a grant from the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, also known as CTAHR and the Seeds of Wellbeing or SOW project and is supported by grant from the US Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. In this episode, we speak with Lawaia Naihe, director of Ho’ākeolapono Trades Academy, an institute based out of Anahola, Kauai on Department of Hawaiian Homelands. Ho’ākeolaponoʻs mission is to provide the Hawaiian community with cutting edge vocational training across high demand trades with a special focus on problem solving and lifelong learning. The nonprofit is geared toward Career Technical secondary students and has already partnered with several public schools to deliver its program. The nonprofit was designed to increase employment and advancement opportunities by providing students with crucial building and construction knowledge and multidisciplinary 21st century trade skills. So welcome to the seeds of wellbeing podcast. And today, I am wonderfully graced by the presence of Lawaia Naihe, yeah, did I say that correctly? I apologize if I didn't. So I like to go ahead and ask Lawaia, could you share a little bit, which organization are you with and how is it related to agriculture?

Lawaia: 2:09

Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me on. We I started a organization Ho’ākeolapono Trades Academy and Institute. We are primarily, we teach all the building and construction trades. Weʻre connected with agriculture, because where we're also working on starting a mahiai division of our program, where you know, we can get some farming and and getting students ready for a career in farming if that's what they wanted to do, as well as building and construction.

Thao: 2:47

And how long have you been doing this?

Lawaia: 2:49

I started the nonprofit in November. Nonprofit in November. Yes. And I started I started our program in August. August 1 was our first day

Thao: 3:03

of last year. Wow, you're very new then. So what prompted you and compelled you to create this nonprofit?

Lawaia: 3:12

Um, you know, after so many years of being first a DOE teacher and then being an administrator in our public school system, it just, it was it was tough. You know, I don't know if anybody you worked for the State of Hawaii but working for the State we had a lot of, or as far as the DOD, we had a lot of restrictions and you really couldn't do things. So I kind of just said, Okay, I'm gonna step down, step away from from my career, and start my own little program. took a leap of faith, and it's kind of paying off off.

Thao: 4:02

All right, so what area of agriculture do you think you would, your program, would make the most impact in what parts of agriculture?

Lawaia: 4:12

Well, first thing is we're located on Hawaiian Homelands. So Hawaiian Homelands, as you know, we used to have like a lot of sugar cane, pineapple and things like that. So just like all the other Hawaiian Homelands and most of our agricultural land, it's just kind of dead. You know, they come the plantation, they came and sprayed a lot of chemicals sprayed a lot of fertilizers and, you know, rat poisons and things like that, arsenic. So our soil is that way our soil is dead. So we need to revive our soil as well. So we decided to take on the task of remediating. You know, we have 400 acres of Hawaiian Homelands here that is just dead, dead land. We took on the task to try and remediate that soil so that we could bring community farming and turn it into a household norm. So, that's how we're getting into with agriculture. We were looking at different crops as far as sun hemp, different types of legumes, regular hemp, hemp to help us take these take the toxicities out of the soil and revitalize our soil with nitrogen working with different organizations and trying to get IMOs, you know, indigenous microorganisms back into our, our system. And it's a long process, tough process, but, uh, well, high need process and service that we need to do for our community.

Thao: 6:06

So which organizations are you collaborating with to help you? That're helping you do.

Lawaia: 6:11

Right now I'm working with Kauai Farm Planning and a couple of individuals for working with EB Kua on the west side of Kauai. We are also working with Hemp Solutions Kauai. And our big, one of our big organizations is are the guys the organization is Alai Aina Alliance. They got the land down Anahola. They got the RFP. A 30 day revocable permit to kind of caretake the land, and we're using this as a prototype, kind of like a catalyst trying to start, start something up. And we can go to other communities and say, look at what we've done here. You know, we have, we have an amazing opportunity because of the autonomy and the ability to be innovative. We're on Hawaiian Homelands. I'm Hawaiian, myself and I am a beneficiary of Hawaiian Homelands. And, you know, we got Hawaiian Homelands all over the state. So if we can do some kind of some type of system here, we can go to other places and say, "Hey, this is what we're doing. Now you guys can attempt it, yes. And try to do something else. But this is what we're doing here. We're, we're trying to make an entire community, ahupuaʻa style community, you know, and bring it back into a norm.

Thao: 7:44

So if I'm understanding correctly, Do you, what you're doing is sort of like a prototype to try to address one of the key stressors in what we found out in our needs assessment is access to land. Yes. Farmers?

Lawaia: 7:59

Yes. Exactly. We're, we're working on that. Obviously, were building our high school. So we're building a standalone trades and building and construction high school that encompasses all the, all of these, all of these other techniques,

Thao: 8:23

so you're addressing another stressor is the difficulty of finding skilled labor, skilled labor for Hawaii and consistently. So how? Can you provide a little bit more details about your Trade Academy to build a skilled labor force?

Lawaia: 8:39

Yeah, you know, I also am a carpenter. And you know, I had my I had a little renovation, just a little business. On the side, as a teacher, you know we don't make a lot of money. So and there's summer breaks, and our weekends and our spring breaks, and we got to, we got to do what we got to do to survive. Especially the cost of living here in Hawaii, I've always found that it's very difficult to find labor that is, you know, know what they're doing. And I think that's just across the board. The kids that are coming out of high school, they're just not prepared to enter the workforce, which makes sense because our schooling system is geared to send students to college. So, you know, we're, we got to play around with those games. So if instead if we can create something where our students can learn it while they're in high school, not all students are going to go to college. So we want them, we want to give them a safe place that they can learn these skills, these trades and careers, and if they feel the need or and while at the same time offering dual credits through through our community colleges, and if they feel the need that hey, man, you know, maybe I can go to college. If I'm focusing on these CTE programs, or even if I want to be a general contractor or construction manager, you can just, hey, I can do it, you can go to college, and if not, no problem, you can go to work, and we can help you get, we can help you get into a into a good job, you know. So that's, that's where we started. One of the big complaints that I, that I hear from not only contractors but the CTE programs is guys come in, and they don't know what they're doing. They don't, you know, they don't know what they're doing. And then it deters the student. You know, if you're on a job site, and you got this new kid that doesn't know what he's doing, all the older guys like guys that know what they're doing, they kind of go through a hazing phase, or his kid just goes up, picks up, picks up rubbish, picks up trash, go up, pick up trash until you're worth something, you know, and then and then after that, you've got to come over here, then you get to learn the cool skills, and you get to do this, but until you can do all this other stuff. And then so that deters the students, they don't want to be there. They don't want to be there that long. You know, they're like, Well, I donʻt want to pick up trash. Now, how long am I going to do this? And, you what, again, understandably, those jobs need to be done. But just trying to give the kids and these young adults the head up to move on and do something better.

Thao: 11:33

So, um, you did mention youʻre a teacher, but I'm also assuming you're also a farmer?

Lawaia: 11:39

Well, not necessarily. I'm not a farmer. I grew up farming kalo in Hanalei. But I wouldn't consider myself a farmer. And I, I do want to I see the need with the farmers, there's a high need for that. And there's a high dependency on imported food, you know, I see the need that we got to change that. So if I'm, no, I'm not a farmer, but I got friends that are farmers. And they, you know, the I make, I expect, and from conversations that I had with these farmers, is that it's hard for them to get labor as well. Yeah. You know, so if we have, we have a place where students, where we can corral the students that are looking for these types of career choices, then everybody in our ahupuaʻa, everyone in our community, everyone on our island can benefit from something like that. Even if even if these students, let's say we don't have a farming program, every farm needs something to be built. Yes. So you know, you're gonna have to build barns, you're gonna have to build storage, you're gonna have to build this, you're gonna have to build that you're gonna have to plumb, you're gonna have to plumb your irrigation, you're gonna. So, when when people say,"Oh, well, farming, and this is different," it's like, it's, the product is different. But everybody needs to build infrastructure, everybody needs to build capacity, everybody needs to be able to grow. Without being able to build, you're gonna have to pay for that, you're gonna have to pay somebody to come in and build that. Or you could build it yourself. They're both stresses. They're both stressors, because what kind of stress do you want to have? If we can give you, if we can bring, teach students to farm and build things, then they can be innovative? You know, that's where the innovation comes. It comes from learning how to do the skill. Once you learn how to do the skill, that's it. "Oh, I know I can make this faster. I can make this cheaper, I can do this." This, you know, all of the innovation comes after you learn the skill. Yeah, so we teach the students the skill. We teach the students, the innovative mindset, the entrepreneur mindset, to, "Hey, how can we make our community better?" And we teach them in our, in our program, we teach them community first. And then what I have found in the short time that we've been doing this, is that the students really, really take on to community style learning. Place based learning, project based learning, hands on learning. They really take onto those things. We do things as a program where we, some kapunas, they call us up and say, you know, my window is broken, or my door is broken, or my bathroom needs to be bigger because my mom just got into a wheelchair, and they were like, Okay, guys, let's go. We go over there, fix some window, fix a door, add an ADA ramp. We've done decks, you know, we've done remodel for a bathroom, you know, allow kapuna to be able to roll in and out with, and be able to roll right into their shower. So, and the kids love that. And you know what they get paid, they get paid lunch from grandma. And they love that even more. Yeah, so, you know, it's a blessing to see that.

Thao: 15:19

So I think what you're touching upon is a really important point about versatility. And that allows for creative problem solving. Because as a farmer, as a producer, you're constantly doing this problem solving. And like you're saying that the more skills you have under your belt, the more confidence you have to be able to navigate through stressors or challenges, whatever they may be. Absolutely. So can you give us an example of what a week is, like, if somebody joins your program,

Lawaia: 15:45

A week... We start our mornings, you know, we'll start off with a day we start our mornings off with a briefing, safety briefing, stretches, we go over our, you know, lesson plan for the day. Our interns, you know, then go to work or whatever we're working on, they get the regular breaks. And, yeah, it's like a, it's like a regular workday, except we're a lot more educational, as opposed to a lot more laboris.

Thao: 16:21

So it's very hands on. So there's not a very, there's not a curriculum or modules or something that

Lawaia: 16:28

No, we do, we do have a curriculum, you know, we follow we follow standards, and we do have, but what separates us is if I have a student for eight hours, or six hours to six hours in a day, and it only takes three hours a week, to meet the hours that this student would, would need for a credit, one credit. So if I have a student for six hours in a day, I can teach two credits. Yeah. And so our classes can be, that brings a lot of innovation, our classes can be two hours of work in the morning, and four hours of, of hands on work. And some days, it's some days, it's the whole six hours is hands on work because we've done we've done the front loading, maybe Monday and Tuesday we've done the class works, you know, stuff. And Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, is pretty much all just just getting these things done, you know, and, and in between, we make sure that we are, we are giving critical feedback. At the time, it real time feedback, like okay, you know, let's set this, these nails in one perfect example, as we was doing. We were doing siding and siding, you're gonna have to put it all your your nails in after. So what our guys did was they put up all the siding, and then they had to come back and set all the nails. And that was a good learning experience for them. Is that okay? Now what is faster? If you put your sight one piece of siding up, you shoot your nails, and then set your nails and then move on to the next? Or is it faster to do all your siding and then come back and set your nails in? And then they're like, oh, you know, we could have just done it at the same time. I was like, exactly, that would have been much faster and efficient. And that wouldn't have actually helped you think ahead. So we like we encourage students to go out and try to do these things. And we encourage these little micro failures, like we call them, because then that's when the real learning happens is when you know, you you make a mistake. Or you you you weigh the two options, you know? As as educators we like to reflect, right? What's what could have done, what could we have done better? What worked well? What are we doing in the future? So when when they get that reflection? That's when they think oh, wait, oh, yeah, that would have been much faster for us and less tedious. So that's just one example of, you know, offering real feedback, you know, at the time as opposed to something later.

Thao: 19:23

That's great. And how many of these your students so far have the interest in also going to farming and doing agriculture or ranching

Lawaia: 19:32

of well, my interns I, so we have a high school we have high school students and we have interns, students that have already graduated high school and they're they're on scholarships through various other organizations. We have four of them right now and of them, all four of them like farming. They like farming like all of that so, yeah, it's it's, the need is high right now, as far as in our, in our system. They're in the program to learn building and construction, but as we're going, we're building, one, we're building our high school at the same time. And we're building our farm areas. A part of our curriculum, will be having to manage these farm areas for for, you know, for the high school, and I think it's, it's kind of just showing them here's all of your options, you know, here's, here's all of the techniques and skills you're going to need to run these options. What do you want to do? Our hope is that everybody becomes a farmer in their own yard, you know, in their own homes, that's our hope. Our hope is that you know, you can use utilize this building and construction to to make your money there you can go home and and you can farm in your own backyard. Not only that, but you can take whatever you farm you could feed your family and potentially bring your farm bring some of your produce to sell as at a farmers market or as bulk. So one of our students actually has his own poultry business so he he sells he I think he said he sells 8 dozens of eggs, 8 dozen eggs a week. And this he's he's 18 years old. 18 years old, he's been doing this already, you know. So we are, we for him, we've done a couple of chicken coops trying to teach him how to make chicken brooders, chicken coops, how to how to maximize our off grid systems like harnessing solar power, wind generation, things like that. And, you know, I think the next step for him is working on the entrepreneurship of it, ya know, because right now he's just selling he's selling eggs to you know, one Auntie, you know? One Auntie always come by, buy eggs from him and farm fresh eggs. Yes, I'm like, Okay, well, how do we step that up to our next game?

Thao: 22:10

So what are some of the challenges that you see, you're foreseeing, to really get, roll this out and the sustainability of what you're trying to do here.

Lawaia: 22:19

One thing I'm seeing here, being on Hawaiian Homelands is that all of the water has been diverted, you know, a lot of the water have been diverted. Our reservoirs have been have been decommissioned. So we have a lack of water. Our soil is just trash, our soil is trash. So those are the two main issues we face. Water sucks, and our soil sucks. So how do we get that back? What are some innovative techniques that we can use that can help mitigate some of those issues?

Thao: 23:00

So what are the some of the solutions,

Lawaia: 23:02

Some of the solutions are you know, these Korean style methods of farming. We, one thing we're we're trying to develop is a program that we can actually house up at our reservoirs so that we can utilize these manmade reservoirs. The issue with those is they need 24/7 maintenance. So they need pretty much people to be there all the time. Thank ya. Nice, sweetie, sorry about that. And you know funding, it's hard to get money and it's hard to find people, for a lot of these farmers, and a lot of this it costs a lot of money and trying to find the resources to come in and and build it is a lot. So we decided, well, why don't we just train our students to do it? Because they're going to do it anyway. Why don't we just train them to do it? And and then they can again, our hope is that they will come up with more and more innovative ideas, concepts and and put them into work.

Thao: 24:19

I think that's I mean that's really interesting because you know, farming is such a resource intensive in many different ways your time your labor, your supply, you know, physicalm manual. What was it like material resources as well so you're, you're sort of you're what you're trying to do, if I understand correctly is encouraged a mindset and develop the skills were given limited resources, how can you make potentially make it work or be creative? And yeah, I think some of these

Lawaia: 24:50

Absolutely, and I think one thing about farming is that I think everybody gets away from is, everybody right now is training farming as mine and yours, you know, I mean, it's the truth. But if there was a more community style farming system, then I think we could, you know, resource share, and labor share, right? When it's time to when it's time to, we all come and, it's time to harvest product, we all can come over there and help you harvest this product, right? Because we're all in this together. So yeah, going back to mindset and community mindset we want, we want to change the mentality from mine, to ours.

Thao: 25:40

So it sounds like you're, it's like some folks who are, let's say, Devil advocates will say you're trying to go back to the past, we're moving forward to the future. And the future is all about technology and big data. So what you're trying to do is getting people to do back home gardening and home farming?

Lawaia: 25:58

I mean, what's the difference? You know, what's the difference between having an aquaponic system in your backyard? Yeah, there's, there's no difference. You can have an aquaponic system, maximizing, you know, your, the 21st century technology, you can have the lights, you can purchase the lights that can help give artificial sunlight, you know, there's no difference. It's just we're encouraging people to go and figure out what works best for you. One thing that we've done a horrible job with, is we've done a horrible job mixing our culture, with technology, we've done a horrible, it's either you're going to be cultural, or you're gonna go 21st century, it's not a blend. And we need to change that mindset as well. It's not it's not about just these. Yes, I believe we need to be innovative. And we definitely need to take on the past cultural experiences, and successes, because we were successful, very successful. For someone to tell me that Hawaiians would not have evolved or been innovative, I kind of just shake my head and said, No, absolutely not. I believe 100%, that my people would have been innovative. And they would have kept up with modern, you know, technology, we were the first state to have electricity in our in our, in our palace, you cannot tell me that's not innovative. You know, we had electricity before the White House, you know, and then we we got we came to Hawaii, because of innovation. We jumped on canoes, we followed the stars became and we cultivated islands throughout our way here, stopping at these various points, and then moving here. So when when I hear those things, I kind of just shake my head and say, Oh, well, that we need something better than that. It's not, you're gonna do that, or you're going to do this, it needs to be together

Thao: 28:04

Together. So that's also the issue with, let's say, the small farmers with the big ag. So how do we have big ag and small ag work together? Because it seems again, that dichotomy of you, and you know, me this separation.

Lawaia: 28:20

Well, you know, I mean, on Kauai it's one trust, I think we I think that's established. There needs to be trust. It's, people don't trust big ag, because of the past, you know, and farm small farmers, they just feel like they can't compete with big ag. I think if everyone went to the community style farming, you know, the small farms now become big farms. You know, these, if everybody works together, the small farms become big farms. Opening up the dialogue with"How are we going to help each other?" You know, if it's, if it's you versus us, then that's fine, too. But I would prefer not to be that way. You know, it starts with a you know, it starts with a bunch of conversations, the first few are going to be very hurtful to a lot of people's feelings, and it's going to be very emotional. But once we get over those emotional conversations, then we can have like, okay, what are the next actual holo ponopono steps that we can take to move on move forward? And, you know, lay out everyone's intentions. Some people want to make money. Some people want to help communities grow some, you know, obviously, everybody needs to survive. So, currency is really big. But, yeah, yeah, that's a good question. You know, how do we how do we all get to the table and say, Look, this is what we're doing. This is what works. This was doesn't work. This is what we're doing this is what works and what doesn't work? How can we all work together? And obviously, I, you bring in that community mindset, a lot of things can change.

Thao: 30:09

So is there anyone who's sort of spearheading or trying to have these open dialogue, that is willing to be in the trenches and work through these challenging, difficult conversation that needs to be had? Because everyone's talking about them? But

Lawaia: 30:27

Yeah, definitely. One thing that we don't have here is kind of, we're seeing big ag kind of, like, leave you know. We have Monsanto, you know, all the seed companies out on the west side, we don't have much, much farmers here, as far as big ag farmers here in Kauai that I know of, and I'm not, you know, I'm not big, very big in the farm game right now. But, you know, I would love to have those conversations, because I'm not a farmer, you know, I'm coming in, I don't have a bias, you know, I just want people to work together. But that's it. I don't, I don't have it. To me, it doesn't matter what you grow. To me, it doesn't matter. You know, all those other things people fight about, those things don't matter to me. I just want to I just want them all to work.

Thao: 31:17

You want just you want harmony and everybody to come together?

Lawaia: 31:21

I just want them to work. That's it. I don't want it to like not work or something be broken, and then blame everybody. Somebody else. Everybody's pointing fingers? Okay, well, I'll be the first to say, you know, it's my responsibility to, you know, to work on our students to cultivate something better, which is why I quit my job to start something like this, you know, it was my responsibility. I went to college to learn how to do these things. And I became an administrator and a teacher and an educator, because I wanted to, I set that as the responsibility. Nobody else told me that I'm going to do this, I said that as myself, it's my responsibility. And I expect that I expect people, if that is your profession, to do what professionals are supposed to do. And again, I felt like I needed to step away. And some people just need to be leaders.

Thao: 32:24

So in your academy, are you providing the conditions and context for the students, whoever's involved, to rediscover their kuleana their responsibility, then?

Lawaia: 32:34

We definitely, we definitely work on that, you know, by teaching you know we got cultural practitioners coming in, and (okay, sweetie, give me one second) We have cultural practitioners that come in, and they teach these these practices. We have, we have, we have open communication with our students and our interns. We try to, we try and change the mentality. You know, again, it's our seventh month of operation. We feel like we're doing a really good job so far, but you know, we constantly got to grow, we've had our ups and downs, we've constantly got to be innovative, we've, we've constantly, the teachers gotta get coaching too. You know, teachers have to improve. We cannot just stay stagnant with things we teach. We we have to be able to improve. Yes, we start small and we add things more and more. You know, one thing we offer is just trying to change the mentality is we we offer financial training and teaching. Our interns they have opportunities to start their own investment accounts. We will open and encourage them to have a checking and savings account, teaching them how to manage their budgets, personal budgets. If you can manage your personal budget, you can manage a business budget, you know, so that's, that's how we try to to shift the mindset. I don't know if that answers your question.

Thao: 34:10

Yeah, it is. You're getting at the heart about intentions and values, like so. Work is not just like something that I do to make a living and having an income. But it's more than that. It's if I'm understanding correctly, it's like your work is actually your life. And it's integrated.

Lawaia: 34:28

You know, it's funny before they used to your name used to be Shoemaker. Their last name is Shoemaker. Right. ʻCause you make shoes. That was your life, your whole entire life, your grandfather did your great grandfather did, it was passed on generation to generation, generational. So weʻve gotten away from that, you know. People obviously, times change, careers change, but you know, I think I think our bodies and our DNA want to be doing those things that are helpful, and that we're that we've kind of been doing.

Thao: 35:08

So, you know, this project of ours is focused on well not just focus on but it's also trying to understand and raise awareness about stress and wellbeing, for our ag community. What would be a solution or some ideas that you could offer to increase stress, decrease stress, and increase wellbeing for our?

Lawaia: 35:30

The number one stressor? I am, when talking to people, and that could be biased because of the program I have. But the number one stressor I have, when talking to people is they just don't have enough people to help or they don't have enough labor. They don't have enough people that want to get into this. So a lot of farmers feel like they're just going to a, it's a dying, it's a dying breed.

Thao: 35:59

Because of this access to skilled, consistent labor,

Lawaia: 36:02

Yes, yeah. And, you know, it's tough, being a farmer is tough, you know, it's very difficult. When when you can add 21st century technology to things you know, and you got, it's much easier. What is it easier, it's, it's much cleaner, and less back intensive, when you have a hydroponic system. And girls too! And you're, you're let's say you're raising, or you're And girls, yeah. Oh, and we do have girl, all female programs growing lettuce, and heads of lettuce and theʻre on riased tables, you don't have to bend over to pick them up, right? You get the water flowing through, you get closed loop systems that can you know, ebb and flow through, through your system. It's not and you don't have to go into the dirt, you don't have to get dirty, you know? So I, that's the one stressor I've, I've been and again, I am I am on workforce development program. So maybe that's why, you know, I'm getting all the guys that want more labor that want more trained professionals coming out. Instead of trying to just, "who is going to do this," you know, if we have a circle at you know, like our school, if we have a pot that we we identify students as. Okay, these guys are either going to go into the CTE field in college and they want to take the college route, they're only going to go for a certificate or an associate's or something like that. Yeah. And if we have building and construction workers, right? Then or are farmers. But we have a place that guys can come in and say hey, you know, we're looking for farmers. Weʻll come over here and come, come, one, come give a presentation to our students. Two, see who's interested. And you know, if we get a good, which I'm sure we will, we'll get a big, big turnout of guys that want to farm we have a big turnout of guys that want to just do building and construction. We want we got guys that we got guys that do the hybrid of the two. I think that's that's as well. So okay, yeah, yeah. So yeah, you know, that's the biggest stressor I feel and I or I see it when I'm when I'm talking to farmers, but then again, I have there's, I'm I am Career Readiness Program, right. So when they talk to me, it's, it's like agendas already planned out, you know, so we don't really, we talk some about land, but all the farmers I talk to, they have land. We've talked a little bit about water, but the guys I talk to, they already have their water situation figured out. They just need help. They just need help being able to harvest. One of the farmers. One of the farmers that I talked to is, he has these big, sorry, he has Gerber actually, Gerber, is a taro farmer on the Big Island. Gerber wants to purchase 1000 pounds of taro from him a week.

Thao: 39:17

A week, wow

Lawaia: 39:18

Sorry, of poi. 1000 pounds of poi a week. And he can only produce now 6 to 700 pounds. You know that's, he said, if I was to add another 300 pounds, there's, for me, and there's two of them, for me and him to be able to do we cannot do it. I said okay, and you know, that's losing out on a lot of funding a lot of money, a lot of resources. But also, it's hard. Who wants to be a taro farmer to get all dirty, you know, unless you teach them. Unless you make it a lifestyle, like you know this what we'll do today guys. We're all gonna get to the taro patch and we're gonna get dirty, or we're all gonna go to the hydroponic system and we're going to, you know, work with work with some of those systems. So I think the more exposure there is, the better. It'll be all around.

Thao: 40:16

All right, but it feels like you are filling a niche that is very much needed and the skilled labor force and workforce development. So is there. Yeah. Is there anything else you would like to share with as we wrap up this, our discussion and talk story?

Lawaia: 40:34

Um, you know, that that's about it? You know, I think the the biggest issue that we need to do if if there is anything that needs to be fixed is the mentality, you know, the community mentality. Hawaii was very thriving when people work together, and I think people in general are just better when everyone works together. Yeah. So that's, that's the one thing that I'm really focused on trying to trying to change with our young with our young men and women. Are those mentalities like, it's not you versus the world? Yeah, we all live on this island. It's an island, so there's no way we cannot. What you do directly affects me here. So we need to make sure what you do is pono, what I do is pono, and if anybody needs help we work together. That's, that's the one thing that I would I stress with, with our with our curriculum with our program with our teaching, it's, the individual gets you nowhere. And that's something I credit to football, playing football. Playing football let me know that you could be the best player in the world. On a junk team, you guys will not win. You will be successful as an individual, but your team will not have success. And and I feel, I view our community, I view my team as a football team. You know, everybody has their roles. And everybody needs to do as good as they possibly can. And we strive for we strive for that, that excellence. Now, whether it's achievable, you know, but if we strive for that, that's, that's what we get, get what you put in.

Thao: 42:21

So on that note, I'm going to end our talk story. We want to thank our guests for their generosity and manao. We also want to thank all our ag producers throughout the islands, and especially those we have heard on the podcast for discussing ways they address the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of Hawaii ag production. Each story each voice contributes to a broader understanding of what it takes to survive and thrive as we feed our communities, wherever you may find yourself within our island agricultural economies. If you would like to share your story in our podcast, please contact us. Thank you for listening to the Seeds of Wellbeing "Voices from the field" podcast featuring their perspectives of ag producers throughout the Hawaiian Islands. If you have found it helpful, please follow like and share this episode with others. And if you have any ideas about how we can make it better, please let us know in the comments or use the link on our website. Mahalo for tuning in. The intention of these podcast series is to create a safe space for respectful and inclusive dialogue. With people from across a broad and diverse spectrum involved in growing and making accessible the food we share together. A diversity of voices perspectives and experiences can serve to deepen mutual understanding to spark creative problem solving and provide insight into the complexities of our agricultural system. If you, our listeners, have experiences with Hawaii agricultural ecosystem from indigenous methods, permaculture smallholder farmers to large including multinational agricultural, industrial companies and everywhere in between and you would like to share your story please contact us. We welcome your voices and perspectives. So I heard through the coconut wires that you you guys want an award or something can you share a little bit about what that was award was all about?

Lawaia: 44:37

Oh, yeah. So we entered a competition through Chaminade itʻs the Hogan entrapreneur program sponsored by American Savings Bank. We we got first place for our project and our our design and our plan. So what that tells us is that, you know, we don't just have an idea, we have a plan. That one, you know, we feel like other professionals in the business and nonprofit worlds have felt like, this is something that we could get done through our school by building our own school. And then by being it being able to help not only building and construction, but farmers get labor farmers get get support. Whether it's somebody calling up and hey, you know, we need some help. Can you help us? We got a community thing coming up and like, of course, we can help of course we can help. That's what we're here for. We're here to help serve the needs. So, yeah,

Thao: 45:45

who wants more information about your program? Where should

Lawaia: 45:48

Oh, we are on... Our website will be open, coming we look? out, launching next month. We do have an Instagram, hoakeolapono. Yeah, and that's what we got so far. We're, like I said, we're really new. We're a startup and more things to come. And just we're learning them as we go. So right now we're just, we're on Instagram hoakeolapono. And our website should be dropping next next month, within the next week or so.

Thao: 46:23

Wow. Congratulations, very well deserved

Lawaia: 46:26

Thank you very much.