Kalani High School senior Mia Nishiguchi serves as the student representative on the Hawai‘i Board of Education for the 2025-26 school year. While the student rep is a non-voting member, the position comes with the same responsibilities as other appointed BOE members and offers a student perspective for the entity charged with formulating education policy for the state. The role requires a strong understanding of student issues and the ability to represent all public schools in Hawai‘i.

Driven by environmental justice and health education advocacy, Nishiguchi aspires to make a positive impact, both statewide and internationally. As a youth policy leader for the Climate Future Forum, she organizes youth events at the Hawai‘i State Capitol. Nishiguchi also founded the Hawai‘i chapter of Youth Climate Save, an international youth movement dedicated to promoting environmental awareness and action. Through this organization, she has connected with students worldwide and created digital content to further their mission.

In addition to her environmental advocacy, Nishiguchi is passionate about health education. She serves as a youth leader at both the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Breast Cancer Hawai‘i. She has earned a Breast Cancer Education certificate and co-organized a public resource fair to support the community.

Over the summer we caught up with Nishiguchi, who shared with us her goals as the BOE student representative and her vision for Hawai‘i’s public school students.

Q: Why do you feel like you are qualified for this role?
A: I think the (Hawai‘i State Student Council) really took my experience (into account) prior to even applying to the BOE. They took how I was already fighting for public school students across the state. Maybe it was because of my resolution that I did last session to instill a Climate Week within all DOE schools across the state–I guess that really just set a precedent for my commitment to serving students.

Q: What made you want to pursue the role as the Student Representative of the Board of Education?
A: I’ve known about this role for a while now. Two of my other siblings go to private schools. I feel like especially because I’m involved in all of these areas that I care about–such as climate change, food systems, and human rights–I just felt like it was a really good opportunity to share my voice and create more relationships with students all across the state. I’m definitely very honored to have this voice and have this role. 

Q: How do you feel about being the first Kalani High School student that is going to be taking this role as Student Representative for the Board of Education?
A: This role is definitely a big role and I am very honored to be the first representative from Kalani High School. I think that this should be happening more for sure, we should get more schools that haven’t had a representative from their school into the BOE spot. It’s just a really great thing and I hope to inspire more people, especially at Kalani, to maybe apply or get involved. 

Q: What issues do you think students are most impacted by today? And how are you going to advocate for these things?
A: One is financial aid. Especially with everything happening in Washington, D.C., and higher level government that maybe we can’t control here in Hawai‘i but it’s definitely going to impact a student’s opportunity to pursue education in the future and that’s something that we should all be concerned about. Something else is definitely climate change as well. We’ve seen the Lahaina wildfires and sea level rise. Seeing all the statistics about our future is detrimental. Something that I could push is segues of education within schools because I feel like one way to combat all these social justice issues is to just teach students about it, have good conversations, and correctly inform students about these issues that are presented to them as well as presenting students with more opportunities to get involved in their community. Just really hone into what their passions are; that’s a really big step that we can take. 

Q: What does it mean to you that you are representing all public school students across the state?
A: It means a lot to me! It really just means that I have to take myself and create a bunch of relationships with all these students across the state. I just really want to emphasize that I will be the voice of the students, not the voice of myself. I’m definitely very honored to have this role. I’m willing to work hard and do whatever it takes to represent the students well. I want to make sure that we have a voice in our future and policies in everything that impacts us. 

Q: What do you hope to take away from this experience?
A: Just serving on the Board of Education is a big role. I feel like I’m really going to be able to dive into the nitty gritty on the Board of Education and everything that serves education in Hawai‘i. I’m just really going to understand everything that’s going on, how higher level government is going to impact our schools and students. More perspectives is something that I’ll gain and definitely take into consideration in whatever I do. 

Q: What kind of hobbies or extracurricular activities do you partake in?
A: I like to make matcha from scratch. That’s something that I’ve gotten into lately. For my other extracurriculars, one of my big roles is that I’m the chair of the Hawai‘i Youth Transportation Council, it stems from the legal settlement from Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation and it’s just a really big council. We’re really just focusing on getting the word out, pushing the sustainability and zero emission school by 2045. I’m also a leader of the Climate Future Forum, which we hold an event every year prior to the legislative session. It’s basically a space for you to learn more about sectors of the climate that they are interested in. There are a bunch of legislators there and organizations with tables. It’s just a really good networking and learning space.

Q: What are your post-high school plans?
A: After high school I’m definitely planning on going to college. I’m hoping for the East Coast and I’m looking to study political science as well as economics. Maybe double majoring. 

Q: Do you have any role models that you look up to? If so, how do they inspire you?
A: I’d definitely say it’d have to be my peers and the people that I work with, as well as my family. They inspire me every single day by showing up. A lot of them are just super intelligent and they inspire me to do everything. I like to work together with people and just fostering those relationships is very inspiring. 

Q: What is your favorite summer activity?
A: I’d say probably going to the beach and just hanging out with my friends because I feel like summer is the perfect time for that and good to recoup for the next school year. This summer is actually really busy for me. I do have another class, it’s called Mapping Justice. We’re mapping using Geographic Information System (GIS) and spotting social justice areas on the GIS and it’s this whole research project. It’s definitely very time consuming but I really enjoy doing those types of things.

This interview was conducted by Kalani High School junior Chiara Doyle. She wrote this piece while working as a summer intern on HIDOE’s Communications Branch team.