As the Oceanit Summer Intern Program 2022 draws to a close, we’re proud to announce that this year’s intern-organized canned food drive was a success!
Drawing on Oceanit’s strong ethos of community engagement, the interns chose to support a non-profit organization that shares the same care for the local community: Aloha United Way (AUW). AUW helps organizations and individuals by offering resources for access to health, education, and financial stability to the local community. As stated on their website, AUW’s legacy “has been built on (their) history of adapting to meet our community’s greatest needs,” a sentiment that aligns well with Oceanit’s mission to support the future of education and imagination for Hawaii’s youth.
To support AUW, the 2022 interns put on a “Giving Game” where Oceanit employees could make monetary donations or donate food to AUW. Each dollar, or can of food donated, entered that employee into a raffle for an Amazon Echo grand prize. The “Giving Game” raised $670 and 171 cans, which were donated to Aloha United Way on August 11th.
We are proud that our interns chose to support a great local organization. “It was very rewarding,” said intern Micah Morikuni, “to see that many members of the Oceanit Ohana came together for the greater good of society in Hawaii.” Originally from Hawai’i, Micah is going into his sophomore year at Purdue University, studying electrical engineering. He joined the Student Intern Program in June of this year.
Oceanit’s Student Intern Program typically runs from June – August each year, bringing in students and recent graduates with a talent for creativity and knack for disruptive innovation. Interns work on a wide variety of projects, from building AI computer vision models, to restoring wetlands or stabilizing beach erosion, to working with advanced metamaterials and nanomaterials. Additionally, through the course of their internships, each intern develops their own innovation project proposal that they present to a Review Committee at the end of the summer, many of which have resulted in products and services for our clients.
