 Think Tech Hawaii, civil engagement lives here. And welcome to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're a show that focuses on success stories in Hawaii, normally about businesses in Hawaii, but sometimes we get into the companies that support those businesses or the entities that support those businesses, or sometimes the organizations that prepare future business owners or career type people to get ready for the workforce. Now this is going to be one of those days. Now I just want to mention we broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30 from the downtown studios of Think Tech Hawaii in a Pioneer Plaza. And so the group that we have today came all the way over from the Everside at Campbell High School, Long Trek, and they were here and they took the time out to come down and talk to us. Shane Greenfield has been on the show before, Greenland, I'm sorry, has been on the show before, and he's come back and he's brought two special guests with him this time. So we're going to hear a little bit about the academy that they have out at the Campbell High School, and we're going to hear some maybe testimonials about how well this academy works for two of the senior students out there. Shane, good to have you on the show again. Great to be back. We had such a great response last time when we did it, and by being able to put up our website, we've had businesses actually contact us and getting more involved and the academies are really starting to build. We're organizing a business networking night that we're going to host on March 29th for many of the businesses that really want to give back and give to Campbell as well as find out how they can- Is that going to be at the school? It's going to be at the school. We've got a few business partners that are helping sponsor it. The Better Business Bureau is one of the main leaders in it as well as Central Pacific Bank. Excellent. But it's just been a wealth of people wanting to find out ways of how do we get involved and how can we start bridging the gap between post-secondary DOE as well as the business sectors on being able to create a great product and when we send kids out, they have those skills, habits, and dispositions so that they can find a career. Right. And if somebody wanted to find out more about this business thing that you're talking about, how could they find out more? So again, you can go to Campbellhigh.org. There's a website there, or you can call or email me at the school. But there's, you know, in any various ways, any of the academy principals that are at Campbell, the school principal, our academies director, they can all provide information on what that night will be. And if they would like to come, we would definitely love to have them come out. And what's going to be the format of that evening? What are you going to talk about? So probably the first 20, 25 minutes, we're actually going to have a few clubs and different groups from our campus go through and perform and kind of showcase the hula team, the dance team, the band, our drum line is going to perform. So just kind of a quick little showcase of some of the things we do. And then we're going to kind of break out and have all the academies will be showcasing what their academy consists of, what our goals are, the vision of each of them in trying to work with the post-secondary institutions as well as how we can partner with the business partners to get the many of the 3,200 students that we have out into the real world and get real life knowledge so that they can make real life decisions and get real life careers. And it's those business partners that's really going to be necessary to make all of this come together. Huge, because the end game for everybody no matter whether you're going to go to college or whether you're just going to go straight out and go into the workforces is a career. Everybody wants to have a career so that they can make a livable wage, stay and live in Hawaii and enjoy the dream. And it's our job as educators to try and find the best possible ways to put kids in those positions and partner with businesses. And they've been great, you know, and we have a couple of really good business partners that are really stepping up and putting us in touch with other business partners to make this really work. And when everybody comes together, you know, great minds do great things and many people make light works. Magic starts to happen. It does. It really does. We brought two magic people here today that real success stories from what I understand. Can you tell us who your guests are today? So we brought Laila Valdez. She's in our health academy. Her goal is to eventually become the best nurse in Hawaii. All right. We need plenty of those. What do we do? Yes, we do. And we think very highly of Laila and, you know, we're going to put her in touch with Hawaii Pacific Health. Hopefully she's going to get an internship this summer and then go to college, stay here and then become one of our, you know, one of our best nurses we want to keep them. And then the other gentleman I have is Brandon Evans and he's in our agricultural IB business academy and he recently just participated in a scholarship opportunity and was actually the winner in the recipient of a four year college degree at HPU. Wow. Very good. Congratulations to you both. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Laila, why don't we start with you? Can you just explain how you got into the academy and how that has helped you get to where you want to go? Okay. So personally, the academy has started at our school just around this time. So I was already a senior. But just choosing the academy that I wanted to go into was very easy. It's health. I wanted, when I become, get older, I want to become a neonatal nurse practitioner. And I've already known that I wanted to go into the nurse, the health field ever since I was younger. So just the fact that our school had laid out these various academies that are aligned to different jobs in the work field, that was just a great opportunity for us to expand our outlooks on certain things. Because a lot of kids at our school, they don't really have that background knowledge as to what they want to do in life. Because if you ask someone at school, oh, what is your future plans? Most of them are unsure. So having these academies really helps display that and gives a lot of the students an outline as to, okay, maybe I can go through this pathway. Gives them some choices or options that they can explore and see what they might be interested in. Yes, options are really unique options because it just gives us somewhere to start. And in order to actually do something with your life and start something is to at least start somewhere and explore your options, because some people don't stay in just one niche. They go out to other niches. Well, as we were just talking earlier, you never really know where your career path is going to take you. And I've had some pretty interesting twists and turns along the years, and I'm not the only one. I mean, a lot of people start out in one direction, but they end up in another. It's always good to keep your options open. But healthcare kind of runs in the family a little bit, doesn't it? It does. My mom is a nurse. She's an LPN. My two sisters, they are registered nurses. And my other sister, she works as, she does paperwork for a doctor just in all of the branches of medical field. Very good. My dad, he's dental technicians. He makes teeth for the dentist. So it's just, it's in my family background. My grandpa, he was a doctor in the Philippines. So this is a family business then? Yes, it's healthcare. It's in our blood. But I realized that I've always had an interest for it. It wasn't just something that I wanted to do, because it was in my background. It was something that I wanted to explore. And just when I was younger, I knew that I wanted to go into the healthcare, because first of all I love helping people and just immersing myself in trying to find ways to help people feel better and just go on with their lives is just what I want to do. It's great that the world needs people like that to help us older guys, you know, staying in shape and stay healthy. Yes. Brandon, now you've got some interesting going, you know, this is a scholarship you just wanted. It sounds very impressive. How did that all work? What we had to do was we had to present a topic or an idea or some kind of product that would help improve Hawaii. So whether that be a program or in my case a product, we had to show how it could help Hawaii and how it would implement that. And they were very diverse. They've fallen to a variety of different fields in liberal arts and sciences, but mine was a science-focused one. I made a device in school actually, you know, one of our classes, which is focused on that. And I made a device that allows fresh and saltwater organisms to live together. And it also improved the organism growth by 30%. And while this device has already been made before, it was $50,500,000 before, which is very expensive. But I had brought it down to a $20 process. And so I presented that and I won. And it's a full tuition at HPU for four years. Very good. Congratulations. And how did the Academy play into all of this? How did you get into the Academy and how did that help you? Well, I was a senior too. So our academies just started really coming into focus when I was a senior. But I joined the Business and Agriculture Academy because I thought, oh, what I want to do, I want to be able to help in the business community, you know, and social entrepreneurship, right, ethical about it. And also, this project I was working on focused a lot with agriculture because it was glaring organisms, so I thought, I'll try that. And one of the classes that's really focused on innovation, I was able to work on it in class. And I had that time to actually develop the product, which I wouldn't have had otherwise. But I did it all in class, well, not all of it in class, it was a lot outside of class too. And I got a lot of help from different areas, just from reading and going out and talking to people and seeing what the real issues were. And did the flexibility of being in the Academy give you the time to be able to do this? Yes. As opposed to maybe more of a traditional type of process? Yes. One of the main things, I do say I had help, right? But a big part of it was that you was up to you. You decide how well your project goes, how well what you're creating goes. And simply, if you want to talk out to people, it is up to you. So you have that time that sucks your time in the day to work on your project, but it's ultimately up to you. So it's highly self-directed and project-based, really. See, that's something that I love hearing people say is that it's up to you. I mean, your whole career, your whole life is basically up to you. And you've got to put into it what you want to get out of it. That is true. And it's great to hear that this is being communicated and the message is being received. Shane, I mean, are these typical of your senior students out there? I mean, it sounds like you've got two great people here. They are two great people, and as you listen to them talk, you can hear the passion come out of, you know, that they're going to do something that they love and that they want to go into. I mean, anytime you can find a career that you love what you're doing, it's not work, so that they're going to enjoy what they do. So in trying to structure our academy models, we want everybody to find what their niche in life is and what they love doing so that they do put in the unlimited time and effort to really just be successful because it's what they're passionate about. Instead of just doing homework to do homework, it's doing homework to advance themselves in careers in which they're going to make, you know, their livelihood. So that's the academy model. So in other words, what I'm hearing is that when you've got this passion and this engagement, people are coming to school because they want to be at school and they want to go through this and they want to learn these things rather than being forced into subjects that maybe they're not necessarily all that enthusiastic about. Yes, very true. And these guys, they would come to school regardless. They're just great students. But I think as we continue to build and find the passions and tap into what the kids are interested in, and they can go and make their pathway that's going to replicate what they enjoy, that they're more likely to come to school and study the history of cars instead of the history of the world or the different types of history, although you still have to kind of take in some of that for graduation requirements, of course. But when you're looking at what your livelihood's going to be for the rest of your life, you want to study how those things happen because everything you always want to get better. I mean, how can I get better today than I was yesterday? And how do I keep improving? And how do I keep progressing? Because like with everything, it still comes back down to your core values. What do I believe in? And how successful do I want to be? Because it's only time and energy. And that's the two things that I'm in control of. The amount of much time as I study or the amount of much energy as I put towards something is strictly up to the students. With that, they work hard that there's this greatness that can happen. We're going to have to take a short break. And when we come back, maybe we can talk a little bit more about the academies. And I guess there's several of them out there. And you're each in different academies. So maybe we can talk a little bit more detail about the differences and how that all kind of plays out. But we need to take a one minute break. But this is business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're here today talking about the academies that they got out of Campbell High School. And we've got two students here that have really impressed a lot of people. So we'll be right back in about 60 seconds. Hi, I'm Dave Stevens, the host of Cyber Underground. Every Friday here at 1 PM on thinktechhawaii.com. And then every episode is uploaded to the Cyber Underground, that library of shows that you can see of mine on youtube.com. And I hope you'll join us here every Friday. We have some topical discussions about why security matters and what could scare the absolute bejesus out of you if you just try to watch my show all the way through. Hope to see you next time on Cyber Underground. Stay safe. This guy looks familiar. He calls himself the ultra fan. But that doesn't explain all this. He planned this party, planned the snacks, even planned to coordinate colored shirts. But he didn't plan to have a good time. Now you wouldn't do this in your own house. So don't do it in your team's house. Know your limits and plan ahead so that everyone can have a good time. Welcome back. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're here today talking with Campbell High School. We've got Shane Greenland here, who is one of the principals out of the academy. And he's going to explain a little bit, Shane, about the different. You have different types of academies there, right? Yeah, so we have six different academies. So it starts with our freshman success academy. So all ninth graders are put into houses and put into teams. So that all throughout that ninth grade, they work on basically transition to high school, as well as they start career days. They start their career focus. And then they start really trying to really dive into where they think their career pathway is going to be. So we talk about the other pathways. And then at the end of that ninth grade year, they choose which pathway they want to get into, in which what they think is interesting. So then that leads into the other five pathways are our academies. So we have the Academy of Business, Agricultural Science, and IB. We also have the Public Human Services Academy. We have the Digital Media Academy. We have the STEAM Academy. The STEAMs? STEAMs, Cover Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. Wow. And then we also have the Health Sciences Academy. And Lila is with our Health Sciences Academy. So we're partnering up with some business partners where we're going to actually retrofit one of our classrooms to look like a hospital, to give them the real life learning, give them that environment so that when they come in, we do Dress for Success Workplace Workforce Development on Wednesday. So the Health Academy, they wear their scrubs. Business has the business casual attire. The agriculture kids, they wear what they wear when they work in the garden. Flip flops. I mean, we still make sure we're safe. But we're really just trying to put forth that what is going to be expected when we get into the workplace? We also have our Culinary Academy with our PHS. And they've actually gone and won some awards with a bunch of the chefs on the local island. Not long ago, we had Chef Rock come in and did some judging. So everybody's trying to find their niche in the world and connect with partners on how do we bring real life learning into the classroom so that kids can basically portray or learn all of the soft skills and the habits in which they've been lacking to get jobs. We want to set our kids apart from everybody else. We want Campbell kids to be great. And that just increases the probability that they'll be successful once they get employed somewhere. Yes, sir. That's our goal. We hope so. Well, what we need to do is not only find the business partners to help with that process, but also the employers to hire the people and let them get that experience. Because that's, Lila, in your case, as you move into the health sciences and the nursing field, you've got to find a place that's going to allow you to get some experience. Yes, it did. Yes, and so you're a senior. You entered into the program. How does it work? I mean, do you have specific classes you go to to learn about nursing? Or how is that structured? So it's the first year that the academies have been implemented. And it's since my senior year. And not saying it doesn't exactly apply to me. So there's still many things that are still trying to go into development. But personally, from hearing Mr. Greenland's plans about what he wants to do for the health academy and such, it's great. Because just the fact that he's going to make a whole simulation of the hospital, that really intrigued me. Because I wish I had the opportunity back then to be exposed to the hospital setting. Because it's difficult to find internships or opportunities to actually go into the hospital and have that one-on-one action with actually working in a health field. So just the fact that Mr. Greenland is pooling in all these opportunities for students and having these opportunities at school, like they don't have to go out and search it for themselves, although that's really good. And that's the students' part, since they have initiatives. It's just the idea that our school is promoting. We care that you have that experience. And Mr. Greenland is bringing that in for the students now. So just the generations that are going to come through Campbell High School, they're going to have that development from freshman year to sophomore year, all the way to senior year, to help them explore their options. And that's what I find really great about the academies. And as for me, I'm just glad that at home that my parents taught me to always know what I wanted to do. And I'm so glad that I had my parents raised me well enough to know that. So just knowing that in the school system, we're developing in a way that we're not regressing. We're going forward. We're looking forward to the future of that. And then being coming, yeah. Yeah, it's not status quo in a sense. I mean, you're looking at moving forward and making things better and doing what your parents did, but maybe do a little bit more and better and with more technology and that. And that platform is being provided to you to do that. That's great. Yeah, coming from a small town like a beach, it's weird to know that there's so many opportunities out there. We're so used to being in this provincial town and just living our lives day by day. But the fact that our school is stressing on the idea that there are opportunities out there, we're going to bring them to you. And that's what I appreciate about these academies, because it's giving students that exposure and just making them realize that I have to do something now, I have to start. And if I don't start somewhere, then I won't do anything. And it's good that we're telling prompting students to start somewhere. To take that initiative. And Brandon, I guess you're a senior too when you entered the program. So you're kind of in the same situation as Lila is, but you're in a different academy. And what is that academy all about? So that academy basically focuses around not business and agriculture, right? Those are two very closely related fields. It's talking about how we manage our resources, but also how we make it to an economical fashion. And so that we understand the business of what's going on in our world and the greater understanding. And what I think was really good about these academies is because is that they bring in the entire internships and different programs where you reach outside the classroom, where before you really had to look out, you had to go far to find out. It was a real practical experience. Like I've done internships before with the Pacific America Foundation and with different groups, but I had to find those on my own. You have to go out there and you have to really look. But the good thing about academies is that it brings it a little closer to home. And it allows you to just build that sort of environment where you can start on internships, you can start doing real projects, and you can start doing them very, very early. And it gives you that motivation to do them. Where ordinarily you would have to go find the knot on your own. And it's possible. I mean, I did it and a lot of other students have, but it is limited, right? So you have to be very careful. But it also takes some energy and time to do that, which takes you away from other things. So it's good to have a partner helping you in that process. Definitely. Very good. And so what do you think, when you get done out, I know you've already got your scholarship at HPU. Where do you expect to go with that? Do you have any thoughts on what your major is going to be? I'm thinking of majoring in marine science because the product that I've made so far, it's very focused on aquaculture. And only aquaculture, but agriculture too, because plants, animals, and fish, they all increase by 30%. So that's a big growth and you just add a $20 device. And I want to continue studying that because I see this as a widely applicable product. Once again, it's the business and we can add culture altogether, resources. And also I want to work with biotechnology because that's a rapidly growing field, genetics, working to genetically engineer organisms. You already see there are large corporations already involved in that here on the island. And I think we can take- It can be controversial, so be careful. It can be controversial, yes. But you've got to make sure that you make it something that is beneficial, right? That's also having those ethics and those skills built up those, that idea of a solid understanding and basis. So you're not going on doing reckless things. But that's something I want to pursue because I feel that if we use it properly, ethically right, in the proper fashion, that we can really advance our society. You know, I have, and you can probably correct me because I may be using wrong terminology, but I had heard that hydro agriculture, where you're able to not necessarily- Hydroconics. Not necessarily use the land, but you can actually take and grow vertically and that there's enough vertical opportunity using this technology to feed the world several times over. Yes. You know, so the potential for that is just really unlimited. Yes, and one of the great things about this device that I made is that you can put, because it's all in the water, you can use it in that hydroponics. You can use it with your aquaculture. For example, right now I'm designing an aquaponic system where you're able to grow saltwater fish, right? Like say, like say, a lemur or something like that, or a largely tuna, for example. Although I'm going a little smaller, with seaweed and with lettuce, all using the same water because it's all pumped in with these little bubbles. Seafood salad all at one time. Yes. Very convenient. And it puts it all on a single system and it's making it hyper efficient because ordinarily, a lot of saltwater organisms, you can't mix them in with their freshwater and there's a lot more involved in raising them and you can't bring them to the home. But with this device, you can start doing that and it's very cheap. Patented. Oh yes, it's being, it's patent and pending is going right now. That's something else good. This academy showed us how the whole, we had a whole presentation about patents. I was like, oh, I should get that, you know? Because if you don't cover yourself, because that's another thing, right? You can know all these science, all these great skills, but if you cannot apply them and you cannot think of the possible consequences of what you have to watch out for, then you lose out on things. People take your ideas or you might just never be able to actually put it into functionality because you just didn't know something and you get yourself in trouble, which happens way too often. It does, you know, and there's a lot of people that have a lot of brilliant ideas that never got to benefit from it because they just didn't protect that intellectual knowledge. Yes. You know, and they got attorneys that specialize in that. Yes, they do. So it's very important. You know, we're gonna be wrapping up here, Shane. Any final words? I mean, you know, you want to put out any requests for more business partners or... We're always looking for business partners. You know, like we said last time and even now, one of the most important things, I think, is just networking. Getting people to know people that can help people and help schools. You know, we really want to bridge the gap between businesses post-secondary and high schools. We want to do what's best for kids. You know, we do have hydroponics at our school. Everything is just always evolving. We have a great team at school. You know, it's just not, you know, myself, we have a principal that's really leading the push for academies. You know, Mr. John Henry Lee, our CAS, Heidi Armstrong, is really a huge push for academies in making things happen. You know, it's just all of our academy principals, you know, all the administrators within our school, that they really want kids to be successful on their terms. Success is up to them. It is, and that's probably a good way to close that it's all up to them, up to you. You know, to make it all work. So congratulations to you both. It seems like you're going to have some really outstanding careers ahead of you. So very good. And thank you for being here again today and driving all the way out here from Middle Beach. Thank you very much for having us. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30. I will see you next week at that time. Until then, aloha.