Pacific Internship Programs for Exploring Sciences (PIPES), University of Hawaiʻi

At PIPES, we believe that these four values and relationships are foundational to best practices for natural resource stewardship and management

• Naʻau, the connection to oneself, is located at the small intestines of the body, which Hawaiians believe to be the seat of thought, intellect, feeling, and affections; in essence the connection to oneʻs self and life experiences. This is where we believe transformation begins.
• ʻĀina, the connection to place and space, encompasses land, waters, stars, rains and other elemental sources, and also refers to time, space, and tangible/intangible environments.
• Kaiāulu, the connection to community, references the village and represents the reciprocity between an individual and the communities they serve and are a contributing member of.
• Kaʻao, the connection to data articulation, are essentially the tales, stories, and legends, representing thousands of years of data held in kilo (observation) by Hawaiian people in Hawaiʻi.

PIPES offers programs that are designed to connect under-represented undergraduate students, especially those who are Native Hawaiian or kamaʻāina, to internship opportunities with agencies and organizations responsible for research, management, and education relating to environmental issues in Hawaiʻi and throughout the Pacific region. Our vision is that more students, will enter into fields of study and ultimately careers related to the protection of natural resources across the Pacific.

PIPES is a 10-week internship program focusing on fields of conservation research, natural resource management and environmental education. Interns work with mentors across various entities including those from the university, Federal, State, and Counties agencies, as well as non-profit organizations.

Internship Components

Orientation

A 5-day overnight orientation kicks off the internship program with all interns and staff present. This is a time to get to know one another and learn more about what the next eleven weeks will look like. PIPES foundational program elements are introduced to the cohort and we all participate in team-building exercises.

An important part of Orientation is the Intern-Mentor Hoʻolauna Session which is a designated time for interns to meet their mentors face-to-face and put together a working plan for their internship. This ideally allows for the intern to hit the ground running on the following Monday for their first day on the job.

Internship

The internship itself consists of 40-hour work weeks, reporting to the job/project site and carrying out the tasks given by the mentor(s). Several projects in the past have had interns spending their work week camping in remote areas, collecting data at the ocean and in the mountains, analyzing data in an office or laboratory, and conducting educational outreach.

Māhuahua

We meet for capacity building workshops every other week, usually on a Wednesday, from 5pm - 7pm. These māhuahua are intended for interns to build career, academic, and life tools through the Moʻo ʻĀina Framework, and for the cohort to connect with one another.

Huakaʻi

On four Fridays of the internship, interns will not report to their work site but rather hop in a PIPES van for a day-long huakaʻi to various sites on Hawaiʻi Island. Wherever we traverse that day, we learn about the space from the hosts and do some hanahana (service learning) to give back to the area and people for hosting us. These huakaʻi are great opportunities not only for interns and staff to be together as a cohort but also to form and deepen connections to place and community.

Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference

The 3-day Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference (HCC) is the largest conservation conference in the Pacific and is held in Honolulu during our programming. It is mandatory for interns and staff to attend this Conference as an opportunity to learn more about local and Pacific-wide conservation efforts. PIPES covers the costs of conference fees, airfare, and lodging for all interns. An important part of the trip is always our PIPES Alumni Networking Session, where current and past interns as well as staff get to gather over lunch and talk-story about their PIPES experiences and journey thereafter.

Symposium & Reflection Camp

The culminating event for our interns is the Student Symposium where they present their work and experiences in an ArcGIS StoryMaps format to an online and in-person audience. Attendees are family, friends, mentors, community partners, PIPES alumni and more. It is an integral part of our program that beyond creating a space for interns to express their reflections, also offers an opportunity to have their work seen widely often by individuals/organizations that potentially would like to support the intern beyond their undergraduate studies.

The PIPES Reflection Camp is an overnight stay with the cohort and staff where we all are able to relfect on our time together and individually for the last time as it closes out our programming. PIPES staff typically uses some of the time to disseminate a survey and gain feedback from interns on how to improve our program for future interns. The rest of the time is for relaxing with each other.