University of Hawaii receives $1.5M for agricultural science education pathways

Non-technical summarynative hawaiian students remain significantly under-enrolled in food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (fanh) careers due to fragmented educational pathways, socio-economic challenges, and a historic lack of culturally grounded curriculum. At the same time, hawai'i faces severe vulnerabilities related to food security, supply chain disruptions, and extreme weather, highlighting an urgent need for a skilled, transdisciplinary workforce in sustainable agri-food systems. To address these challenges, the ho'omau huaka'i 'ike 'aina (ho'o hi'a) project--a phase II consortium uniting hawai'i community college, leeward community college, university of hawai'i west o'ahu, and university of hawai'i at manoa--is establishing an aligned, system-wide educational pipeline ('auwai) connecting associate, baccalaureate, and graduate degree programs. The primary purpose of this project is to systematically reduce institutional and financial barriers for native hawaiian students by deeply integrating indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge (itek) alongside western agricultural science, providing direct student financial support, and creating seamless transfer pathways across the university of hawai'i system.over the 3-year grant period, the consortium will revise or develop 15 experiential courses, create 3 workforce-targeted itek micro-credentialing modules, and expand open-access tropical food systems teaching resources. Using the system-wide cross-campus course sharing (C3S) initiative, community college students will cross-register for upper-level 4-year food systems courses without extra application fees or tuition surcharges. The project will launch the wayfinding huaka'i inter-campus field learning program and provide direct financial support to students, including tuition grants, living-wage internships with community partners (such as ma'o organic farms and purple mai'a's food+ policy program), and graduate assistantships at uh manoa. Anticipated benefits include increased recruitment, semester-to-semester retention, credit transfer, and graduation rates for native hawaiian students in fanh fields. Ultimately, this collaborative effort will build a durable domestic pipeline of culturally grounded food system leaders, advance hawai'i's agricultural resilience and food security, and serve as a national model for indigenous-serving post-secondary food systems education while laying the foundation for a permanent system-wide center for sustainable island food systems.