{"id":21262,"date":"2026-07-23T07:11:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T17:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?p=21262"},"modified":"2026-07-23T15:06:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:06:36","slug":"2026-new-state-funded-internships-connect-high-school-students-with-private-sector-employers-to-strengthen-workforce-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/2026-new-state-funded-internships-connect-high-school-students-with-private-sector-employers-to-strengthen-workforce-development\/","title":{"rendered":"New state-funded internships connect high school students with private sector employers to strengthen workforce development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HONOLULU \u2014 Public school students are gaining hands-on experience in aviation and agriculture careers through the first two state-funded internships that expand workforce development opportunities for high schoolers with private-sector employers in Hawai\u02bbi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In partnership with the State of Hawai\u2018i Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the Hawai\u2018i State Department of Education (HIDOE) is providing funding to private companies to support internship opportunities for HIDOE high school students through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.capitol.hawaii.gov\/slh\/Years\/SLH2025\/SLH2025_Act251.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Act 251<\/a> (Session Laws of Hawai\u2018i, 2025). Under this program, the HIDOE reimburses private companies for the time spent training and supervising student interns, who earn a $20 minimum hourly wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Act 251 appropriated $1.8 million for the internships in fiscal years 2025-26 and 2026-27, allowing HIDOE to expand work-based learning opportunities for students statewide across all 13 Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways offered in Hawai\u02bbi public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aloun Farms and Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum are the first private employers to offer paid internships to public high school students this summer using state funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interns at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum meet for six weeks, 24 hours a week, to receive hands-on training in aircraft maintenance and restoration. The five interns, all from James Campbell High School, are currently part of the museum\u2019s newly created <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pearlharboraviationmuseum.org\/education\/individual-programs\/aviation-pathways-ap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Aviation Pathways A&amp;P Program<\/a>, a two-year workforce initiative to prepare students for FAA certification testing and entry\u2011level aviation jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;ve worked on multiple planes and engines, replacing a few parts like fuel filters, doing a bit of sealing or corrosion control and painting,&#8221; said James Campbell High School senior Devin Araki, who is a part of the Aviation Pathways A&amp;P program and plans to enter the aviation industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Aloun Farms, an intern from Kapolei High and another from Campbell High are meeting for four weeks, 32 hours a week, this summer to work alongside department managers and staff to learn about the day-to-day operations of a local agricultural business. The students rotate through crop care, logistics and operations, sales and marketing, accounting and human resources to gain hands-on experience and see how each department contributes to the company&#8217;s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both internships will conclude at the end of July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outrigger Resorts will soon join the program, hosting student interns at their Kona property and a property in Waik\u012bk\u012b later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just a great opportunity to make people in Hawai\u02bbi aware that this is available to them, you know, as a high schooler,&#8221; said Cy Nishihira, Senior Program Manager for A&amp;P Pathways, Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public school students are gaining hands-on experience in aviation and agriculture careers through state-funded internships.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":21263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"856,888,893,1022,1619,1622","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","wp_popup_display_lightbox":0,"wp_popup_suppress":"","wp_popup_trigger":"","wp_popup_trigger_amount":0,"wp_popup_disable_on_mobile":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":34,"label":"Featured \u2013 News"},{"value":21,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Internship-Workforce-Campbell-High-School-PS913583-1-1024x512.jpg",1024,512,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Kim Yuen","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/author\/kimberly-yuenk12-hi-us\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":34,"name":"Featured \u2013 News","slug":"featured-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":34,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":34,"category_count":1,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Featured \u2013 News","category_nicename":"featured-news","category_parent":0},{"term_id":21,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":21,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":341,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":341,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-30 17:45:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}