  {"id":90109,"date":"2019-01-29T15:18:30","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T01:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=90109"},"modified":"2019-01-30T09:24:35","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T19:24:35","slug":"uh-hilo-pacific-island-stem-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/01\/29\/uh-hilo-pacific-island-stem-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo conference strengthens Pacific Island pipeline into <abbr title=\"science, technology, engineering and math\">STEM<\/abbr> careers"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_90119\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-90119\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/hilo-stem-conference.jpg\" alt=\"people sitting at tables during conference\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-90119\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/hilo-stem-conference.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/hilo-stem-conference-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-90119\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Islands of Opportunity conference was attended by approximately 30 participants from across the Pacific region, including campus coordinators and administrators from each of the 11 alliance institutions. Photos by Raiatea Arcuri.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> hosted a conference in January of educators from <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> and 10 Pacific Island nations who are working towards encouraging students from underrepresented populations to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (<abbr>STEM<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n<p>At the conference, the <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/affiliates\/ioalsamp\/\">Islands of Opportunity Alliance<\/a> (<abbr title=\"Islands of Opportunity Alliance\">IOA<\/abbr>), led by the <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo chancellor\u2019s office, kicked off their 2019 <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> mentorship programs, which are funded by $600,000 of a continuing $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Topics at the conference included inter-campus programs, curriculum enhancements, student learning communities, peer tutoring, enrichment through research experiences, the promotion of <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> graduate degrees and employment, institutional support and sustainability plans.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_90118\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-90118\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/hilo-stem-conference-welcome-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"group posing for picture at conference\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-90118\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/hilo-stem-conference-welcome-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/hilo-stem-conference-welcome-630x353.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/hilo-stem-conference-welcome.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-90118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A k&#299;paepae welina (traditional welcome) was held for the visiting Islands of Opportunity Alliance members. Courtesy photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo serves as the administrative hub for the <abbr>IOA<\/abbr>, including 10 other partner institutions in American S&#257;moa, Guam, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We share the common goal of increasing underrepresented professionals in <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> fields and I feel inspired by each member of our alliance,&rdquo; said <strong>Marcia Sakai<\/strong>, interim chancellor at <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo and principal investigator of the program.<\/p>\n<p>The main goal of the alliance is to increase the number of underrepresented minority students, with a focus on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students who graduate with baccalaureate degrees in <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> disciplines, and go on to pursue graduate degrees or enter a <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> career in their local communities.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The benefit is not just the <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> degree, but what the students are going to do with their <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> degree,&rdquo; said <strong>Joseph Genz<\/strong>, <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo associate professor and <abbr>IOA<\/abbr> project director. &ldquo;In the vast majority of cases, that means going back home to their island communities and using their degrees to build up the capacities of their communities, fostering a system of self-empowerment.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/news\/stories\/2019\/01\/23\/uh-hilo-hosts-alliance-of-scholars-educators-from-hawaii-and-10-pacific-nations\/\">For more on the story go to <em><abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8211;Written by <strong>Leah Sherwood<\/strong>, a graduate student in the tropical conservation biology and environmental science program at <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A conference of educators from <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> and 10 Pacific Island nations are working towards encouraging students from underrepresented populations to pursue careers in <abbr>STEM<\/abbr>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[33,470,313,14,907],"class_list":["post-90109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-hawaiian","tag-pacific-islands","tag-stem","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90109"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90123,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90109\/revisions\/90123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}