 compu girls in Hawaii here on ThinkTech on the military in Hawaii. I'm going to explain that connection in a minute. And we have a special guest from somewhere uphill of Hilo. Am I right about this? Whitney Aragaki in Waikato High School. What on the big island? Here's a shout out to the big island, which we love very much. Hi, Whitney. Thank you for joining us today. Hi, Jay. So you were on ThinkTech in 2016 before I was born. And what was it like? What did you talk about? And why did you come back? Well, definitely was different because I think that oh, that was one of the few shows that we did virtually. I think he may have been on Skype or something before even the advent of zoom. And I had my students with me and it was our first time doing a video conference that way. Oh, that's great. That's great. What do we talk about? We talked about participating in the LifeSmart Hawaii competition. So the students had to do different challenges that involved computer science, environment, business, economics, and so forth. And they're really excited to talk to you. Yeah, well, I'm just going along for the ride. Where are they now? They all graduated. They have. So they were 2016 grads, which means that one of them that was interviewed has graduated from Stanford with his computer science degree and is now working at a startup. A few others are engineers and in economics. Great when teachers follow their students after graduation. That's the mark of a great teacher. Okay, well, let's talk about today. You have to connect up for me between compute girls and the United States military. It doesn't come as a natural connection. Why don't you explain that? Sure. Compute Girls Hawaii is an affiliate of the national program Compute Girls, which was developed out of Arizona State University Center for Gender Equity and Science and Technology. Compute Girls Hawaii is sponsored by Department of Defense STEM grant. So money is coming in to support women and people of color in STEM as well as military connected families. They're really trying to make those connections between our military families in Hawaii. So how long has this program existed? How long have you been involved in it? Compute Girls Hawaii started in the fall of 2020. And I was really fortunate to be a mentor teacher for the program. Remember back in 2020 when everything was online, we held I think six to nine week weekend camps for students. And they came every Saturday. They would spend their Saturday mornings with us. We had about five mentor teachers and we taught them things about computer science, cybersecurity, and just being internet safe. In the first semester, they made public service announcements and those are really amazing. We put them on our website for Cyber Hawaii. And then in the second semester, we worked on microbots, which were small computers. So learning how to do some introductory coding as well as ciphering. And so from that program, last year when everything was online, last school year, we did middle school camps for girls and other students of color. We did that in like spring break. And this past summer, we started our learn, lead, and lunch programs on every main Hawaii Hawaiian island. So Hawaii Island, Oahu, Maui, and Kaua'i. We did experiences there. And then we brought them all together for a Compute Girls Hawaii summit. So 60 teachers and students came together at Entrepreneurial Standbox this past July and did some hands on dissecting of computers and working through ethical cyber hacking and talking about how to get internships in the cyber fields and local opportunities for post-secondary work as well as future careers. Very exciting that you're doing that and that you're doing it on multiple islands. Are you running it? Is somebody else running it? Are you one of many or are you at the top of the game? I am so fortunate to be supported by Cyber Hawaii as the non-profit organization and fiscal sponsor on in the islands. And so working with the women of Cyber Hawaii, I was able to make connections with places all over the state. We were able to visit the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the IT department as well as the East West Center. We visited the Maui High Tech performing high performing computer center in Kihe. We went to Emilo Astronomy Center in Hawaii Island and we went to Barking Stands on Kauai at the Pacific Missile Range facility. So we're seeing where women in tech are exemplifying what it means to be local, what it means to be successful, and what it means to be grounded in cyber security all over. Oh, that's just fabulous. I am so excited. I want to know more. I want to know everything. So now, you know, everybody tells me that women would like to be in computers, but they don't for some reason don't get into it. Is this true or is that changing? Are women more interested in computers now than they used to be? Or is it to take a program like yours to excite them about it? You know, I think that women and all students can be excited, are excited about computing. If I think back to my own experience when I was in college, or even when I was in high school, is I didn't have that much exposure to things other than being an end user of technology. So I did a lot of like online courses and things like that, but never a creator, any content creator for sure. And so I went to college thinking, you know, I think it's a lucrative field to go into computer science and engineering. And within the first semester, I really felt the push out, the feeling othered or feeling different, and not feeling the support that I think we are more aware of today. And I say aware of because I think there are multiple programs, including Coffee Girls Hawaii, that are ensuring that students feel supported throughout their educational experience. And be mindful that stereotyping that othering does exist. And we have to help all students create habits of resilience through those programs. And so today, I think that most of my, when I teach computer science, it's about 50-50, male-female, non-binary. We're seeing that students are getting more access to computer science and thus be more successful in computer science thereafter. I just had a student visit my classroom right before we left for break. And they took AP computer science principles with me. They said, ah, you know, I think I might try biology or I might try chemistry. And two years after high school graduation, they knocked on my door and said, hey, I'm going to move to computer science. I'm doing this. I'm ready to do it. And that's the things that we hold on to as teachers, especially in computer science, that maybe it might not be the first instinct to go into at the start of college, but they're making it work. And they're seeing how computer science and cybersecurity is a meaningful part of careers. Okay, I got a couple of questions. I'm making a stack of questions for you. You mentioned that there are other organizations in the state of Hawaii that likewise encourage students who get into computer science. What are they? Can you talk about some of them? Absolutely. One of our sister programs is Girls and Technology, and that's also sponsored by Arizona State University in partnership with Hawaii Pacific University. And that's a residential five-day camp that takes students all the way through computer science, as well as the different avenues of tech in marine biology, marine science, biology, chemistry, and place-based learning. So I think that that's one of the great opportunities, but also there's things like GenCyber. And GenCyber is supported by the University of Hawaii. And they're on every island, including Moloka'i. I believe Lena'i is there too. Hawaii, they're doing it. They're doing amazing work. Shout out to Amanda Tong, who's doing a lot of great work with students. And there's CyberPatriots. And that's in the school system as well. I think that we have a CyberPatriots program on our campus. And so lots of different opportunities for students to get involved with computer science. I think that we, as a consortium, sometimes need to be better with communicating with each other to support each other. But other than that, lots of opportunities exist. And we want to make sure that all students who want to access these opportunities truly get to. Yes, you said CyberPatriot. What is the CyberPatriot program? Is that also a federal program? That is sponsored by, I believe, that is sponsored by a federal program. I am not fully versed on the CyberPatriot program, but I do know that they do competitions that deal with cybersecurity. You know, one thing I've noticed over a long period of time is that the Big Island seems to have more students who are interested in technology and science. You know, the Hawai'i Science Fair, for example, has a large representation from the Big Island. We cover that every year. And in fact, one of the leaders of the Hawai'i Science Fair is Daniel Adubara. He's from Hilo. Is that right? There's a lot of science people that come out of Hilo. That's why I think it's the water. It must be the water. Our aquifers are amazing. Absolutely. Water. I would agree. So, okay, I'm very excited to know exactly how you handled this. Now, you said that it goes beyond consumer information technology. And Lord knows that's the subject all in itself because there's so many programs coming online every day. And I told you before the show began that, you know, ThinkTech has, we deal in some 70 odd software packages and growing all the time because they're changing and improving all the time. And you also said that, you know, you want to get out and create content, not just use consumer products. So, tell me about the direction of your curriculum. Tell me what programs you're dealing in and what kind of special training you're giving to these students that they can actually get a job after they graduate or go to graduate, go to school, you know, for computer science as a dedicated force. Absolutely. So in our introductory programs that we've done for the past two years, we've been doing a very introductory level of cybersecurity, things that don't necessarily deal with a coding language or and make sure that there's an easy entry point for all students to feel successful. In the next two years where we plan to take this is that we plan to support students to gain some industry certification. So I've been on the hunt for the past few months looking for some industry certifications that would make our students very competitive once they exit high school and start entering the workforce. I know that for the Hawaii Department of Education, we are all on board with getting student industry level certifications. I'm looking at some IBM certifications as well as Adobe and there's a few others that I was looking at as well. So thinking through maybe even giving them access to introductory to Python coding languages and then also just software tech in introductory level cybersecurity information and informatics. So that's what we're trying on taking the the students for the next few years. We're also going to support them in terms of job acquisition skills. So writing a resume, writing a cover letter, how do you search for internships? How do you market yourself online? Appropriate linked in kind of presentations and all these kind of things that would support students to eventually get jobs in Hawaii and be able to stay in Hawaii and do something in a career field that they love. I don't think we're going to have time for all the questions I want to ask you. Now suppose some student runs down the passage and says, Dr. Ari Gaki, is it Dr. by the way? Not yet. Okay, you're working on that. I'm a candidate right now. Okay. You know, I want to get into your program. Can everybody get into your program and how long do they stay in your program? Is it right through schools at every semester? Is it some kind of special certificate? What have you? I mean from the school now, is it a sort of a subset of the science curriculum? How much is it part of the science curriculum? How much is it different, you know, the special recognition? Great question. We do not have any MOUs with schools necessarily. So it is entirely separate as an informal education program from our school system. However, we are working on accessing the breadth of what Arizona State University has to offer. So we plan on offering some early college courses through Arizona State University's extension programs. And so students will get college credit, they will get internship experience and they will get support for a post-secondary application. So any student can enter, there's not even an application process. It's really a registration. As long as there's room in our program, we are going to take all students. While we call these programs Compute Girls and Compute Girls Hawaii, those names we recognize may not exude inclusivity, but we are 100% inclusive to all students who want to participate. We will be featuring women and non-binary individuals who have made it in the cyber fields as guest speakers and as mentors, but we ensure that all students feel welcome in our program. Okay, so you know that there are people in the state of Hawaii who have advocated for programs through the legislature and government and whatnot. So to train and encourage students to be part of a tech community, a tech sector, if you will, in the way of diversification. When you use the word diversification, you're really, generally speaking, you're really talking about information technology, talking about computer science that people think and they have thought since she was, since John Burns. I'm not kidding you. They have thought that this is a good thing for Hawaii. And yet here we are in 2022 and we don't really have an identifiable tech sector where one of your graduates can walk out the door, get a job locally, and a good job, good pay, and stay in Hawaii instead of having to go to the mainland and Arizona State University, which is a very good school, or other places, and then wind up with the risk of staying there, the risk of us losing that person, that young girl or boy. And so the question I, do you think about this? Is this part of the program to develop a, what do you want to call it, a reverse brain drain job sector where we can hold on to them and give them jobs early on, either when they graduate your school or when they come back, if they come back, in the tech sector and thus build a tech sector and improve our economy by diversifying it in. Talk about that, will you? Yeah, this absolutely keeps me up at night. I've been thinking about it for the past few years, ensuring that even I as a classroom teacher, I want to make sure that no matter what pushing my students out to any college that they want to go to, that they feel this sense of kuleana to return, to always give back to the community, as well as, you know, feel successful, not just giving back and being a martyr in the community, but feeling successful and feeling like they are proud to be a participant within our islands. And so something that, something that emerged from that, that wondering that I've had was our, our learning lead and lunch programs on every island. The reason for, for doing that was not only to show our students that there are, there are jobs here, but it was almost like a recruitment visit, that yes, there are jobs here and there are women here who are making these jobs more hospitable to all people who want to apply. It's not just a male dominated or a continental dominated kind of environment. It's, it's as close to what we can develop out of a tech ohana as possible. So that's why we did those experiences on every single island to ensure that students felt like, Hey, I can get a job on my own island. I don't have to leave or I can feel like I can come back. Something that was shared nearly at every visit was that these, these tech giants, these women tech giants said that they have a hard time retaining staff if they come in from the continent. You know, people get a shock. Absolutely right. They get a shock. How much a gallon of milk costs or how much it costs to fill up your, your gas tank and local kids just don't have that shock anymore. We've grown up with it our entire lives. And even if there's just a lesser pay, there's, there's this, this cultural capital of being able to stay with your family. And I think that that's something that we want to continue to pursue and, and recruit our students to stay in this job sector in this local job sector. I can't tell you how important that is. I cannot express it in the English language how important that is. And, and I wish the legislature could recognize how important that is because it ought to be incentivizing. Now you're, you know, you're funded by, you know, the United States. But it seems to me that a lot of organizations in Hawaii could recognize how important you are to the future of our state. I mean, if not important, then critically important. And two questions. One is, are they giving you money because they should? And the other, the other is, if they want to, if they see this and know about you and the program, they see this and they want to give you money, can they, how can they? Okay. It's a multiple question. Go for it. Well, personally, I am this past year, I have been sponsored by the Department of Defense as a STEM ambassador, which means that I was able to also access programming from DSEC or the Defense Consortium of Science and Education. And also, our programs are again, fiscally sponsored by Arizona State University and a local sponsor of Cyber Hawaii. And Cyber Hawaii is a nonprofit that can accept donations for this program. So I definitely recommend anyone who is interested in financially supporting these programs, supporting our students in learning cybersecurity and information technology, especially with the added levels of how we're going to pay out these industry certifications in the next few years for our students. Please contact Cyber Hawaii. Okay, what's the website? It's cyberhawaii.org. Okay, that's very valuable. And maybe you'll find that, you know, something happens here. The other thing is, okay, the military, the military is very interested in cyber otherwise they wouldn't be funding the program so much. And it seems to me, and I recall specific instances where I and ThinkTec were approached by people, recruiters who are working for the military, but try to find, you know, workers, tech workers here in Hawaii, to be, to get, take jobs in the military at the various bases and the like. Is the military hiring your graduates? Because it seems to me, you know, they got a reason to do that and they've already decided it's something they want to encourage. So I imagine if one of your graduates goes to, you know, a military command or a recruiter, it's going to have a soft landing, am I right? Absolutely, yes. We have received commitments from different military organizations that they support our program, and that they would be willing to walk our students through the process of the application of hiring processes. Another good reason to get into your program actually, yeah. So what's the future here? You know, I mean, we've had our ups and downs, as I mentioned, in supporting tech. Sometimes the government, the state government has been friendly to tech and sometimes I have to admit it hasn't been friendly to tech. It's turned its back, it's been distracted with other issues. And, you know, it doesn't have a consistent policy of supporting your students and the development of the tech sector. What's the future? What's the future for your CompuGirls program? What's the future for a tech sector for all graduates in Hawaii? I think the future looks bright and it's because currently our governor has signed into support computer science in the public schools to ensure that all students from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade get a computer science education. That is a huge change than any other year in the past. And so ensuring that our students get computer science education would thus ensure that there is a need for a tech sector and a need for, again, a soft landing for these graduates, nearly every graduate from the Hawaii public schools. We're also seeing in our CTE departments, our career tech education departments, that they're rolling out pathways specifically designed for cybersecurity. And that's really exciting because that means that students from ninth grade all the way to 12th grade will receive a comprehensive cybersecurity education and a work-based learning experience. We at CompuGirls Hawaii are here to support that rollout within the public schools and to also offer opportunities through our internships and industry certification programs upcoming. Well, if you follow the geopolitics in the Pacific area, you know, Indo-Pacific and Asia-Pacific and all that, you know that there's a greater focus by definition, a greater focus by reason of the geopolitics of the military here in Hawaii. We are at a favorite place for a lot of reasons and therefore the bases are likely to grow the complement of troops, you know, and institutional facilities are likely to grow. And so there'll be more jobs going forward and we could support them. It's more than the shipyard, you know. This is a new kind of Pearl Harbor ship. It's all about strategic technology and information technology and cyber. So, and I think there's a greater opportunity going forward for you simply because of the way the world is working. Now, what about you? Are you going to stay in this field? It sounds like you're very committed Whitney and I would hate to see you leave this field, but I want to know your intentions in the matter. I am committed to CompuGirls Hawaii and we've been talking about how we are going to ensure that our students have equitable access to these programs from ninth grade through post-secondary education. So, I want to see that through again. I'm also committed to be a classroom teacher for them for the near future for as long as I can see and ensuring that all students have access and equity to a full and fax-based education. Yeah. And why Kaya and the DOE they support you? Yes. Okay. Well, I think it's great and I think think tech, you know, likes you by definition. We have followed the development of a tech sector since we were organized 20 years ago, 21 years ago, and we spent a lot of time on that. So, I'm telling you now, Whitney, that if you ever want to do another show about some development in the program, about some success of your students, about a student who wants to come on and explain a project or you or your colleagues want to come on and explain a project, you have an open invitation and I will be disappointed if you don't write to me. Okay. I will take you up on that offer for sure. Whitney Aragaki of Waikato High School in the Comfort Girls program, part of the military in Hawaii. Thank you so much for coming on and discussing all of this with us. And I'm sorry, we didn't have another three hours to do it. Mahalo Jay. Mahalo. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.