 Welcome to Connecting Hawai'i Business on Think Tech Hawai'i. My name is Kathleen Lee, owner of Kathleen Lee Consulting, and I am your host for this program. Think Tech Hawai'i is currently live streamed on ThinkTechHawaii.com, as well as on Think Tech Hawai'i's Facebook and YouTube channel. And for viewers out there who are watching us live, you may, you may, ooh stutter, email us questions during the show to questionsatthinktechhawaii.com. For today, I am excited to introduce two leaders from JCI USA and JCI Hawai'i, Junior Chamber International is an organization for young active citizens, individuals, professionals between the ages of 18 to 40 who are dedicated to creating positive change and communities all around the world. We are talking about members in 5,000 communities and across nearly 120 countries. That is a mouthful there. And I am excited to introduce Gina Maeda, who is the 2022 JCI Hawai'i State President, as well as Parker Thurnbeck, who is the 2022 JCI USA membership development director. So Parker and Gina, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Of course. Thanks for being on here today. So Gina, let's start with you. Tell our viewers about yourself. Sure. I was born and raised in Hawai'i. I did leave for a short bit to go to California, where I earned my doctor pharmacy degree from the University of the Pacific. I came back home to Hawai'i. I worked as a pharmacist for almost nine years. And then I decided that was not what I wanted to be doing for the next 30 plus years. And actually through skills that I learned by being a JC member, being a member of JCI USA and this fantastic network of people, I was actually able to change careers from a pharmacist using skills that typical pharmacists don't learn. And so now I work for UnitedHealthcare doing something that I love, helping our local doctors, our local health systems, and our Medicare members. So really excited to be here to talk more about JCI and what we do in the community. So thank you so much, Kathleen, for having us. Of course. And my sister went to UOP as well, so a little bias towards that school. Go Tigers. And Parker, tell us about yourself. You were actually, you were just here in Hawai'i, and now you're all the way over in Iowa. Yes, I was going to say good afternoon from a good evening state in Iowa, Mason City, Iowa, to be exact. My name is Parker Thurmback. I am the JCI USA membership development director for 2022. It's a long term for basically just saying I'm here to help members across the country and JCI USA. By day, I'm a public defender where I represent individuals charged with crimes all the way up to murder and everything of that nature all the way down to simple theft, as well as adults and juveniles. I've been doing that for about eight years. I've been born and raised in Iowa, so Go Hawkeyes, the great Iowa Hawkeyes. That's where I went to school. But I joined the JCs for a few reasons. One, I moved to a community where I didn't know anyone. I didn't have any connections. I was working multiple hours, not finding ways to get involved. Once I joined the JCs, it was a great way to connect, give back to my community, and become engaged and actually be a well-rounded citizen in my opinion. That's great. So let's, Parker, let's go into that. What are the JCs? What is JCI? So let's, let's launch into that. So people out there who may not have an idea of what the organization is can learn more about it. Terrific. Yeah. So the JCI, or JCs as a word called sometime, is a over a hundred year old movement. We actually started as a national organization back in 1920 at a St. Louis convention where we had a few states from around the country. We like to joke that, you know, we kind of went back to that days of not being in person and having to go, you know, telegraph and trying to commute a very unique way such as zoom and things like this, like mail was back then. So the JCI movement has been one that we like to better ourselves as well as our community, as well as professionally. You know, one great thing I think about the JCs is that as we were talking earlier was we aren't afraid of having people fail, by which I mean that in the community nowadays, people too often are worried that if I try this project at work, I will fail or I will do something wrong and get me fired with the JCs. We actually thrive on that. We like the learning opportunities, not that we want our projects to fail, but when someone does fail, we use that as a way to grow them as individuals and to be better community advocates and find ways to be more engaged moving forward. Like I said, it's 18 to 40. We have everyone from lawyers, doctors, former pharmacists, all the way down to, you know, civil servants, trash men, you name it, state home mom, Uber drivers, we've got everything. That's wonderful. And that's a great message as well, Parker. Let's talk about some of the national programs that are going on right now and let's bring up the website for Toya. Perfect. Yes. So we do have one program that's been going on, I believe for roughly 80 years now, which is Toya, which stands for 10 Outstanding Young Americans. There's been some great individuals that have won it. In fact, one of the people that always was, we talked about is Elvis Presley won the Toya. And it was in fact the only award he ever went in person himself to accept. So we've had some great winners over the years, some just really monumental changes in society. And in fact, in 2021, we had two recipients from the state of Hawaii win the Toya. The first one was Jessica Roper. And she was a national certified counselor, as well as a member of the United States Air Force since 2005. She's a Korean linguist by trade as well with the Air Force. Since joining the Air Force, she also got involved with counseling and working crisis, which is, as you can imagine, in 2020 and 2021, a huge hotline in need of help there. So she's working the crisis text line counselor as well as helping with creating programs for at-risk youth in both Hawaii as well as being stuck while stationed in Korea and doing runs and things like nature. So just giving back to the community beyond already her service as an individual in our military forces, she did a great thing. It's continuing to be an excellent example of what a wonderful young American is. The other person that we just recently had give it was Tram Lam, Tram Lam, I misstated his name. And he was also a great individual. He's an entrepreneur from Honolulu itself, and it has been just a masterful individual helping the communities and trying to provide service in 2020, 2021 and moving forward. In fact, he helped with JCI Honolulu donate over 13,000 low-costing desks that are water-resistant, affordable cardboard, takey desks that raised over $100,000 for this initiative. And that's just a few of the things that these two individuals have done. It's a great program that we will be doing again this year. Like I said, we've had some great individuals from presidents to football and basketball stars win these awards as music celebrities and you name it. All wide variety of people, they don't have to be JCs. So if you know anyone that you are thinking about wanting to nominate, we are open to public registrations. You do not have to be a JC to nominate them. But it's just one of the great programs that we have to recognize and identify leaders in our communities that sometimes go unnoticed. I think that's great, Parker. So for the nominations, since you were talking about it, do nominees have to be between the ages of 18 to 40? Yes. So they do need to be roughly 18 to 40. At least that top cutoff is above 840. I think we had one person who was 17 when they were nominated. And I think that individual, I can't recall, it's been a few years, created this crazy thing where she made a jacket into a sleeping bag in tent. So people helping out low empowers individuals. Just some great things that these individuals have been doing. But so we've got quite a wide range of individuals, 18 to 40-year-old individuals in our communities around the country who are just providing these awesome examples of what they're doing. And it doesn't have to be big programs. We had an individual from Iowa who won last year for making a Venmo sign that then raised $3 million for the Children's Hospital here. And that was all based on one Venmo sign on a college game day post. That is absolutely impressive. And I did not even know about that Elvis fun fact. So thank you for sharing that. What other criteria could people think about when it comes to nominating for Toya? And can they self-nominate if they'd like to? Yes, they can. We actually had one self-nominee win last year who helped create a musical program at his school. But yeah, so you can be self-nominated. There's a few different facets. Entrepreneurial aspect is one thing we look for. Community service, governmental leadership. There's a wide variety. If you go to jciusa.org and then backslash Toya, there's the form that will be up there soon. It's not yet available. But right there, nominations will be open soon and has different types of individuals. And I think that we do have another page. I don't think it's on here right now that has past winners that you can take a look at and see who some of our recipients have been. Quite some amazing people. Great. And before we go, we have a few minutes before we go on break and then go to Gina for her to talk about local initiatives and programs. But Parker, could you tell us what are some benefits that you've found as a JCI member? So one of the main things that I found was the way to connect to your community. As I stated, I joined because I knew nobody since then. I've had three different friends gain lifelong relationships with their significant others. I've had individuals that have moved through the ranks of their jobs because of the JCI leadership they've learned. I've also seen projects where we raise money for dog parks, help to create animal sanctuary just in my home local town. The great thing is that what JCI is like to do is we like to help out with wherever there is need. It doesn't have to be one type of project. It could be a dog park. It could be a music concert. It could be making cardboard desks for children during this COVID period. They do everything that they can. And how do the JCI's help since I would like to tie this back to our show which is connecting Hawaii business and of course everything that you said is connected. But how does being in the JCI's help someone or prep someone for the business or the professional world? So we allow individuals leadership opportunities through leading projects. Some of these projects are worth a hundred thousand dollars and these individuals don't have any other opportunity to be able to be in charge of music concerts or venues like this or firework presentations. By being in charge of this program it gives them the leadership skills to delegate, create budgets and be proactive in ways and thinking of how to save money but also invest and get back to our communities. The other thing I think is great is once a member becomes involved with your community members generally will stay in their local towns. At least in Iowa we're smaller town chapters so people are staying rather than just going back to the major cities. They're staying connected giving back and providing service to their community and you know loving where they live. Parker thank you for sharing all that information. So when we return we will be asking Gina questions about the JCI Hawaii chapter. So stay tuned. Aloha, I'm Joshua Cooper and welcome to Cooper Union. We look at what's happening with human rights around the world and we invite you to tune in every Tuesday where we feature the voices of the people from the front lines sharing the struggles for self-determination for the importance of sustainability and solidarity with one another to make the world a better place for all of humanity. If you can't catch it live you can also look at thinktechhawaii.com as well as on Vimeo and many other places to catch the amazing shows where we hear from authors, activists, academics, analysts, and artists who are contributing to positive social change around the planet. Aloha Mekapono, thank you for joining us for justice. Welcome back to Connecting Hawaii Business. We just heard from Parker Thurmback, the 2022 JCI USA membership development director on some of the programs on the national level like Toya, which is the, what does it stand for again? Parker, top 10 outstanding young people or young Americans. Sorry, because it also goes to the international level, which is 10 out of city young people. So thank you for that. And nominations can be made on the JCI USA website. We are now going to go over local initiatives and programs. So Gina, what is going on on the Hawaii level? But actually, before you go into that, what is the difference between JCI USA and JCI Hawaii? But JCI Hawaii is our local state level organization. We are tied into the larger network nationally with JCI USA. And then even larger than that is our international network with JCI. As far as Hawaii goes, we have six incredibly active chapters. They have so much going on within their own chapters and with their own memberships, but on the state level, it is our responsibility to help them. You know, encourage the good training that they have, all of their amazing work that they're already doing, but to also represent them on the national level. And so we most recently were able to do that in St. Louis, Missouri. We did have our second trimester convention there. We send competitors every year to compete in write-up. It's a writing competition, speak-up, speaking competition. And you're hired, which is our interview, our job interview category. So we did just have our competitions locally here. And so now we have our winners. We have a few more months to help them prep before the next national competition for that as well. So that is what we have, at least on the state level going on within the chapter level, they each have their own signature projects, everything from the Cherry Blossom Festival to we have the Healthy Baby Contest, which actually also recently concluded. There is a volleyball league, tennis leagues going on. There has been a lot of pivoting that our chapters have been amazing in doing just to keep their members connected to each other, connected to their community. And just trying to not lose touch with each other with the pandemic going on. We do have a lot going on. I could talk for days on what we have planned for the year. Yeah, let's pull up the free photos that you folks shared with us. And you can tell us more about what we're looking at here and who are these individuals? Where was it? Sure, so this first photo is from St. Louis from the second trimester national convention going left to right. We do have from the Honolulu Chinese JCs Anna DeVide. She was our competitor for the speak up competition. Next to her is immediate past president, Del Tanioka from JCI Honolulu. Next to her is Nate Martin. He had just been elected, I believe at this point to deputy deputy national president or DNP. So he is representing Hawaii on a national level as part of the national JCI USA team. So very proud of him. He hails from rising Phoenix JCs locally here in Hawaii. Next to him is Natalie Million from the Filipino JCs of Honolulu. At the time, she was acting president for the state of Hawaii. Next to her is myself from the Honolulu Japanese Junior Chamber of Commerce. I was the representative for the year hired competition. And next to myself is Scott Connoisseur. He was the twenty twenty one Honolulu Chinese JCs president, as well as our competitor for the write up competition. So we wanted to take a Hawaii delegate photo. And of course, of course, we brought our Hawaii flag with us because we we love to represent in that way whenever we can. So again, we were on the stage here at St. Louis. This was, I believe, after the Toyota dinner. So after we had, you know, just seen all of the or heard from all of the Toyota winners, the ten outstanding young Americans, two of them being from Hawaii. And so we jumped on the stage with our flag and wanted to take a delegate picture together. And finally, out of our three competitors, two of us did actually win in our categories. So my myself, I did win for your hired as well as Scott Connoisseur. He won for our write up competition. We know that Anna did fantastic. We've heard her speak before, but the competition was was pretty fierce for for speak up. Congratulations, Gina. Thank you for that competition and for being this year's Hawaii State President. Thank you. It's an honor, definitely. It's a lot of big shoes to fill. Natalie did amazing, amazing job last year. She had a lot of a lot of hurdles to conquer, but she did it. And, you know, I feel like she's starting us off on the right foot this year. So I'm going to do my best. And we do want to thank Natalie for arranging this conversation today. So Natalie, if you're watching or if you're going to watch after this, thank you. And Gina, you had mentioned a program or actually you folks just got approved for a 501C3, which I think is a big deal. Tell us more about that. Yes. So that is one of our big plans for the year. The 501C3 is called Adopt a School Hawaii. You can find us on Amazon Smile. We are just getting started this year. So our 501C3 is stemming from a long time JC project called Adopt a School Day. And just because every year with Adopt a School Day, there is a transition with a different host chapter every year. And so just for consistency's sake, and we wanted to build something truly long term. We started the process of becoming a 501C3. And so we were just recently approved for that. So we have our 501C3 status for Adopt a School Hawaii. And what we are looking to do is quite literally, just like the name of this show is connecting businesses with local schools and it's to fulfill whatever need that school may have, whether it's a having a supply drive, painting parking lots, which we have done in the past, cleaning up aquaponics tanks. If they have a robotics or a technology program that they want to get off the ground, but they don't know how, you know, connecting them to the appropriate business that way. Really, because we are just getting started and getting our operations, you know, off the ground ourselves, we are looking to, you know, recruit schools, recruit businesses and other nonprofit organizations that would be willing to help our schools so that we can start building that database and start connecting people in a long term way. I am looking forward to see all the good work that will be coming out of that nonprofit. So, Gina, thank you for sharing that. And similar to a question that I had asked Parker earlier, how has being in the JC's helped you in business or in your professional life? Well, like I mentioned earlier, you know, I am in my current career because of skills that I learned from JCI, not just interview skills, but also public speaking skills, interpersonal skills. And these are all things that, you know, you could learn on the job as a pharmacist, but, you know, really having that network of people guide you and, you know, mentor you, that that's priceless. And I feel like that those experiences is truly what has brought me to my current career now. I've been a JC for over 10 years. I believe I'm going on 12 years now. And it's not unheard of to have, you know, members for that long. But I think it's becoming a little bit more rare now, which is a little sad. But, you know, being a JC for that long has allowed me to meet a wide variety of people and have a huge variety of experiences as well, which then lets you see the big picture, helps you connect different groups together, different people together. And really, to me, that's that's the root of what JC's is about, is bringing people together so that you can help each other, help your community grow. And we have a few minutes left and a viewer question from one Natalie. And Natalie, what motivated you to work as hard as active JCI members? Parkour, let's start with you. So one of the things that made me decide that's a great question, by the way. One thing that makes me work hard is that I enjoy seeing the projects and the happiness that creates around the country and the states. Been able to view visit a couple of different states and see how every chapter is different, yet every chapter is the same. And I want to get back and provide service to their community. That's what we kind of discussed. The best part of service to many is that's worth of life. That's awesome. Nina, it has been eyeopening only within the last couple of years after serving on past president, Del Tanioka's board for the state. That is really what opened my eyes to seeing exactly how vast our network is and seeing people grow through the years in their own journey that has been rewarding in itself, you know, knowing someone who I've recruited myself, become a member and see them grow, not just through the chapter, but through the state, through the nation. That is that is amazing. And I cannot even describe that feeling. So knowing that one good act can really lead to that ripple effect and, you know, impact your community in ways that you never would have thought that is rewarding. That's what where my drive comes from, really. That's a great question. Great responses from both of you. So let's wrap this up and pull up the website. Parker, take us out. How can people learn more about the organization? So most states already have a chapter. And if you are interested, Hawaii has got six great chapters right now that are thriving in the Ohana. I screwed that up. Anyway, I hope you all would consider joining. Go to JCIUSA.org. And I believe that Hawaii has their own chapter as well. But JCIUSA.org to get involved. We're always looking for more chapters. And we do have some incentives for starting new chapters as well. So feel free to reach out to them at JCIUSA. You can find my contact information there. Thank you so much, Parker and Gina, for joining us today. And thank you as well to J. Fidel and the entire staff at Think Tech Hawaii for making programs like this possible. We had Haley and Michael helping us out today. Until next time. Aloha.