Helping Young STEM Leaders to EMERGE

On November 6th, Oceanit was invited to speak at the EMERGE Youth Leadership Conference, hosted at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

The conference was presented by the Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders and the 2018 theme was ‘Taking on Tomorrow’. This student-led organization was established in 2003 with the goal of preparing Hawaii students to take leadership positions in the future, using innovation and collaboration to solve tomorrow’s problems. In addition to hosting the annual conference, CTL dedicate time to community service, plan and implement school improvement projects, and facilitate individual development courses for their competitive ambassador and fellows programs.

Oceanit’s Grant Tokumi (Civil Engineer), Sarah Leony (Electrical Engineer), and Sumil Thapa (Chemical Engineer) spoke about their personal journeys in STEM careers, gave advice on steps for a future occupation in innovation, and discussed the potential in the engineering field on a personal and big-picture level. While approximately 400 students from across Oahu were present at the conference, two groups of approximately 30 students each were present at Oceanit’s hour-long panel. They took the opportunity to learn about the realities of planning for Hawaii’s future, along with their own.

Topics discussed in the informal panel included the scope of engineering, educational opportunities, and an open question & answer session where students asked general questions. Oeanit’s engineers offered advice about being minorities in STEM fields, realistic preparation for a future in STEM, the value of scholarships, and our engineer’s personal passion projects.