Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 4, 1 April 2022 — Hawai'i Fellows Champion Change in Their Communities [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawai'i Fellows Champion Change in Their Communities

Lead For Hawai'i's fellowship program recruiting for its 2022 cohort By Carolyn Lucas-Zenk Young leaders from Hawai'i Island, part of the inaugural cohort of Lead For Hawai'i (LFHI), are proving that we have the power to shape our future. LFHI is a Hawai'i-based afRliate of Lead For America, a national service program committed to building the next generation of leaders. Lead For Hawai'i participants serve in a full-time paid AmeriCorps fellowship alongside a loeal leader in their community for one year before advancing into positions of community, state or national leadership. "We believe young leaders born and raised in our loeal communities are best equipped to solve Hawai'i's unique ehallenges," said Alexis Ching, LFHI co-direc-tor and Lead For America senior eommunity partnerships manager. "Lead For Hawai'i recruits, trains and retains our most dynamic and innovative homegrown talent to solve old problems in new ways. In collaboration with government, nonprofits and private sector partners, our fellows create sustainable solutions informed by and aligned with Hawai'is unique culture, heritage and history. Through our work, Lead For Hawai'i seeks to change the narrative that says

success requires leaving Hawai'i." Since LFHI began last summer, fellows have been tackling some of Hawai'i Island's most pressing challenges, such as cultural and natural resource management, resiliency and disaster recovery, and sustainable land planning. Kevin "Paka" Pakamiaiaea Davis, part of the first cohort, had just completed a master's degree from Southern Methodist prior to becoming a fellow. "The reason I pursued my master's degree in sustainability and development was to be able to eome home and contribute to creating a more sustainable future for our island, but there were no clear opportunities to bring my experiences back to Hawai'i," he said. "Lead for Hawai'i presented the perfect opportunity for me to eome home and continue learning, while applying knowledge gained during my undergraduate and graduate studies."

Today, Davis is one of two Community Impact Planner fellows working under Hawai'i County Planning Director Zendo Kern. In this role, he is focused on the County of Hawai'i General Plan update, land use research, and long-range planning. For Ku'unahenani Keakealani the fellowship program was an opportunity to work on her aina hānau while earning a paycheck. It also gave her the opportunity to work alongside people with years of conservation experience. Keakealani is working on the Pu'uwa'awa'a Community Based Subsistence Forest Area (PCBSFA) project, the first community-based subsistence forest area in the state. It's a partnership between the Akaka Foundation for Tropical For-

ests (AFTF), the Department of Land and Natural Resource's Division of Forestry and Wildlife, and lineal descendants. She works alongside mentors Nehu Shaw, Dr. Katie Kamelamela, and Kainana Franciseo, learning conservation techniques and strategies, methods of fieldwork, data management, and native forest restoration planning. "Working at Pu'uwa'awa'a is something I hold special to my heart because it is the land my grandfather has worked for generations. This is more about family tradition and continuation and certainly about the love we have for our aina and forests of nā pu'u. This fellowship gave me the opportunity to work with AFTF and the PCBSFA directly. I have learned so mueh." Lead for Hawai'i hopes the fellows' work inspires others to join the next eohort of emerging leaders. Recruitment for the 2022 LFHI cohort is currently underway and the application deadline is April 15. In addition to serving in a paid, full-time role with a loeal nonprofit or government entity to address a critical community challenge, fellows will take part of a premier training program at Lead For America's Summer Institute in Washington, D.C. The year-long fellowship is a launching pad for a lifetime of leadership and community service. ■ For more information or to apply go to www.leadforatnerica.org or email alexis. ching@leadforatnerica.org.

Lead For Hawai'i fellow Kevin "Paka" Pakamiaiaea Davis (left) works on a project with Hawai'i County planners. - Photos: Courtesy

Ku'unahenani Keakealani is a lineal descendant working on the Pu'uwa'awa'a Community Based Subsistence Forest Area project. She has learned fence installation and management, transplanting of native plant species, and ungulate management and data collection.