Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 4, 1 ʻApelila 2013 — D.C. intern program nets record number of Hawaiians [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

D.C. intern program nets record number of Hawaiians

By Mary Aliee Ka'iulani Milham Thanks to community efforts and social media, this year a record number of Native Hawaiians applied for and heeame interns in a Washington, D.C., program for native students at George Washington University. The university's Native American Political Leadership Program has four Hawaiian students participating this semester. Two, La'akea Yoshida and Seanna Pieper-Jordan, are federal advocacy intems with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Washington, D.C.. Bureau, and two others, Kapono Gaughen and Chelsea Rabago, are interning with Hawai'i's congressional delegation on Capitol Hill. To date, 16 Native Hawaiian interns have eome through the program, and two more will serve internships this summer. "It's a huge, deep and tumultuous oeean that they dive into when they eome out here," says Kawika Riley, OHA's D.C. Bureau chief. "This is a poliheal immersion program." Credit for this surge is largely due to Riley's own efforts. When it eame time to find spring interns for OHA's D.C. Bureau, Riley, an alumnus and teacher at GWU and a former OHA D.C. intem himself, naturally thought of the Native Ameriean Political Leadership Program. The program, whieh began as an internship program for American Indians and Alaska Natives, has been providing internships to Native Hawaiians for the past five years.

Upon learning that no Native Hawaiians had applied by the spring semester deadline, Riley initiated a recruitment campaign through a mix of official channels, coconut wireless network, OHA's Community Engagement division and social media. "This community effort resulted in a recordbreaking number of Native Hawaiians who applied for and were accepted into GWU's Native Ameriean Poliheal Leadership Program," said Riley. Greg Lehel, director of the Semester in Washington Politics Program, of whieh NAPLP is a component, says the influx was "tremendous." Both the number and quality of applications surged. Pieper-Jordan, a 2008 Kamehameha Schools graduate with a bachelor's degree in sociology from Yale University, was born on Maui and was raised partly on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana and partly in Kaimukī. Having studied federal indigenous policy, she hopes to bring her broadened perspective to Native Hawaiian issues. The D.C. experience has been an eye-opener

to the need for Native Hawaiian representation in Washington, particularly in the face of sequestration as Congress fiercely debates where to cut expenditures. "With the changes to our congressional delegation and this fiscal climate, programs that Native Hawaiians count on are at risk," says PieperJordan. For Yoshida, who eame to Washington armed with a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in Greek and Roman history from Oxford University, the opportunity for first-hand experienee, especially attending congressional hearings on education, has been illuminating. "In a roomfull of Native Americans andAlaska Natives, Seanna and I, the two interns, might be the only Hawaiians," says Yoshida, who plans to earn his doctorate in education policy. Kapono Gaughen, a University of Hawai'i at Mānoa pre-med student interning with U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, also hopes to someday use his Capitol Hill experience to better conditions for Native Hawaiians. "I believe that to get any legislative work done for our people, we need to have a first-hand understanding of how the system works," says

Gaughen. His passion for service was echoed by C h e 1 s e a R a b a g o , a Kameh a m e h a S e h o o 1 s graduate and

Umversity ot Hawai i-West U ahu sociai sciences major interning with U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono. "Poliheal representation is important for Native Hawaiians on all levels," says Rabago. "I definitely want to return my efforts to my lāhui (nation) whether it is in a position of leadership or support." Within the cacophony of competing voices in D.C., remaining grounded ean be a challenge. For Pieper-Jordan and Yoshida, the OHA interns, their Washington sojourn was powerfully underscored when Riley sent them on a mission to the Nahonal Archives, where they had the unexpected privilege of holding the original Kū'ē Petitions of 1897. "It all made sense. They eame to Washington, D.C., to stand up for our people in 1897, and we are trying to do the same thing in 2013," says Yoshida. "We stood there in awe; it was one of the coolest things I've ever done." ■ Mary Aliee Ka'iulani Miīham, a Portland, Oregon-based freelance journalist, is a former newspaper reporter and columnist from California's Central Coast.

Semester in D.C. The Native American Political Leadership Program offers a full scholarship and a D.C. internship to native students in undergraduate and graduate studies. The semester program takes plaee in the spring and summer. The next round of applications will be for Spring 2014. Application deadlines will be posted online at semesterinwashington.gwu.edu.

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OHA Washington, D.C., Bureau Chief Kawika Riley, left, with interns La'akea Yoshida and Seanna Pieper-Jordan. At right is office manager and executive assistant Charlayne Holliday, a Native American Poliheal Leadership Program alumna who interned in then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's office. - Courtesy: OHA D.C. Bureau

Rabago

Gaughen