Millikan is already nurturing the next generation of sustainability fellows for future cohorts. This summer, she launched a pilot program for fifth graders, allowing them to engage with high school students from the inaugural cohort.

The goal of the fellowship is to help students “develop a sustainability mindset, demonstrate kuleana [responsibility] and feel agency in the work, and increase their eco-literacy, or their understanding of climate issues.”

– Debbie Millikan, director of sustainability

Punahou Launches PIONEERING Sustainability Fellowship

By Shannon Wianecki

“People think sustainability is picking up trash or not cutting down trees. But it’s more than that,” says Chara Daily. “Sustainability involves literally every industry coming together to meet the needs of today and tomorrow.”

As one of Punahou’s new sustainability fellows, Daily will explore these issues in depth alongside her peers and experts in the field. The School’s Director of Sustainability Debbie Millikan launched the 15-month fellowship in the summer of 2024. The inaugural cohort includes 21 students from six public and private high schools across O‘ahu. These rising 10th and 11th graders committed to spending more than a year together tackling some of society’s toughest problems.

The first-ever Sustainability Fellows are an impressive bunch. Daily entered 11th grade at Waipahu High School as an early college Olympian. She’s on track to graduate with an associate’s degree, she says. “That means that I have to use all of my summers and every single day doing early college.” Her already heavy course load didn’t dissuade her from applying for the fellowship.

Same with Dava Watson. The junior at University Lab School in Honolulu has already taken steps towards her goal of a Ph.D. and career in ocean science; after interning at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology at Coconut Island, she launched an independent research project studying the sea cucumbers of Kāne‘ohe Bay. Her college counselor recommended that she apply for the Punahou opportunity. “She knew I had a deep interest in sustainability and really believed I would benefit from it,” says Watson.

According to Millikan, the goal of the fellowship is to help students “develop a sustainability mindset, demonstrate kuleana [responsibility] and feel agency in the work, and increase their eco-literacy, or their understanding of climate issues.” She designed a dynamic schedule for her go-getting students, starting with a six-week summer immersion into the core concepts of sustainability.

A Portfolio of Diverse Opportunities

Over the summer months, the Punahou sustainability fellows attended a variety of lectures and field trips. They visited O‘ahu shipping docks, recycling centers and family farms. One of the first outings was a trip to the Reppun family’s lo‘i kalo in Waiāhole. “We saw what steps it takes to bring food from farm to table,” says Watson, “how much work it really takes, and how a small farm can seed the surrounding community.”

Learning that Hawai‘i imports 90% of its food and goods is different than witnessing that fact firsthand. The students visited the Young Brothers dock, where they watched barges unload. “Then we went to Hawaiian Earth and Triple R Recycling to see where it all ends up,” says Millikan.

That made an impression on Dylan McManus ’26. “I saw just how much trash Hawai‘i produces,” he says. The Punahou junior and water polo player says he applied for the fellowship because “I really wanted to dive into my passion for international relations and how it affects sustainability.”

Another transformative field trip took place at Hawaiian Electric with the company’s SVP Colton Ching. At the control center, the students got to see the electrical grid in real time – where the energy is being generated and used, where problems might emerge, and how to balance that. Ching helped the students build a case study for Hawai‘i to figure out how to implement an integrated grid plan to reach the goal of net zero electricity.

President Mike Latham enjoying the sustainability fellows’ end-of-summer presentations, during which they articulated their key takeaways from the first portion of the program. Latham has identified sustainability as a strategic priority for the School.

One speaker in particular set the tone for the fellowship: climate scientist Chip Fletcher. He runs the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). Government agencies rely on his research to administer coastal policy, establish construction guidelines and plan resilient infrastructure projects. His two-hour talk laid out the consequences of climate change.

“The way Chip Fletcher spoke about it, the way he broke it down to us was really intimidating and scary,” says Tati Chen ’27, a Punahou 10th grader. “It really opened all of our eyes.”

That was the intention. “For the rest of the summer, the kids referred to climate science and its impacts as the ‘Chip talk,’” says Millikan, who purposefully scheduled Celeste Connors ’94 to follow Fletcher’s doomsday statistics with solutions. Connors is the executive director of Hawai‘i Green Growth, an organization focused on achieving Hawai‘i’s 2030 climate, energy and environmental sustainability goals. She has served on the White House’s National Economic and National Security Councils and has foreign policy expertise. She told students about the important work being done here in Hawai‘i. She introduced them to the Aloha+ Challenge – a locally driven framework to implement United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Chen found this talk inspiring. “In Hawai‘i, we’re just small islands, right? Only a few people out of the 8 billion in the world. And yet, we learned from Celeste Connor that we’re actually a leading power when it comes to sustainability. People follow our lead.”

Punahou’s sustainability fellows are not just learning about facts and practices, they are also establishing relationships. “They’re building connections with large companies like the Kobayashi Group and Hawaiian Electric. We had them face- to-face with policymakers as well as environmental court judges,” says Millikan. Access to experts within the community is invaluable, and these connections will only deepen as the fellowship progresses.

The fellowship takes place in three segments: the initial six-week summer program, studies throughout the school year, and a paid internship over the course of the following summer. The fellows will then present what they’ve learned to the public. In exchange for their efforts, they’ll receive numerous acknowledgments they can use in the future, including a certificate of participation from the United Nations, and course credit if they attend a school in the University of Hawai‘i system.

The sustainability fellowship planted the seeds for me. I want to let it grow in my school as well. We’re smaller than Punahou and don’t have as many resources, so bringing what I got from the fellowship to my school is something I’m really excited to do.

– Dava Watson

There are fun rewards, too: next summer, the students will spend three nights on Hawai‘i Island. They already had an overnight trip to Camp Pālehua, a wild refuge for native Hawaiian plants, birds and insects, perched on the southern slope of the Wai‘anae Mountains. The campout gave the students an opportunity to bond while learning to identify native species, weed invasives, play games and sing by the campfire. It was a much-needed retreat. “We intake so much information, and some of it can be intimidating or overwhelming,” says Chen. “Camp Pālehua was a grounding experience, a reminder of what we’re fighting for.”

McManus agrees. “It was super fun,” he says. “I made a bunch of connections with my classmates. Even though we talked to each other every day, we had never bonded like that before.”

McManus says that while his family has always been conscious of its environmental impact, the sustainability fellowship has underscored his personal efforts. “I try to limit my usage of fossil fuels wherever I can. I get rides to practice, rides to school, and I’m very thankful that my friends have been willing to support that,” he says. “Our kumu Debbie made the analogy of a bathtub that’s overflowing with water. And what we’re doing right now is just taking our bucket and draining the water instead of turning off the faucet. I feel like it’s really hard for a high schooler to turn off the faucet, but we can make our voices heard. We can sign petitions, influence our friends to participate, influence our parents to vote for the climate, and stuff like that.”

Not Waiting to Make a Difference

“Punahou’s sustainability fellowship has only just begun, but it has already caused some fellows to broaden their career goals. While Daily knew that she liked geology, she didn’t know much about geothermal science until learning about it during a huaka‘i. “Now I really want to work in geothermal engineering,” she says. “This program exposed me to job opportunities I didn’t know that I would be interested in.”

Similarly, Watson started out determined to be a marine biologist. But after six weeks’ immersion into sustainability as a whole, her perspective began to shift. “I learned a lot about the civic side of sustainability and the impacts to communities,” she says. “I think maybe environmental law is something I’d be interested in in the future, especially because I really like advocating for others and making a difference at a higher level.”

Watson isn’t waiting to make a difference; she already started a sustainability club at her school. “The sustainability fellowship planted the seeds for me,” she says. “I want to let it grow in my school as well. We’re smaller than Punahou and don’t have as many resources, so bringing what I got from the fellowship to my school is something I’m really excited to do.”

Her new club will sponsor school and beach cleanups, recycling initiatives, community outreach and sustainability education for elementary students. “It’s been exciting to discover that as youth, we have a voice,” says Watson. “We don’t realize how valuable it is, but we should actually be using it and advocating now while we’re young, because people will listen.”

This is exactly the type of engagement the sustainability fellowship was designed to foster. Punahou President Mike Latham ’86 sought to create this program to meet the School’s strategic plan, which includes encouraging and providing access to students of diverse backgrounds. “Sustainability is solved by diverse perspectives and representation from all of our communities, not just the Punahou community,” says Millikan.

Millikan plans to start a second cohort next summer, so that the two cohorts overlap. She also intends to offer professional development opportunities for teachers and reach out to younger students. “Imagine if the kids come to us with an understanding of what systems thinking is,” she says. She already started a pilot cohort of fifth graders this summer, mimicking the fellowship for the younger students. 

Chen encourages other students to apply. “I hope that future students can see the opportunities that we’ve had with this program, like the networking speakers, the sites that we got to visit. It’s truly something you cannot do on your own.” But she adds, “you have to be passionate, or curious, or willing to learn.”

Chen believes this fellowship will help her pursue future goals. “It encouraged me to continue trying to teach other people and spread the word,” she says. “I want to make a difference in whatever line of work I choose or end up doing.”

She appreciates the opportunity to collaborate with students from various backgrounds who share similar goals. “I think the most reassuring thing is realizing that I’m not alone. We all brought different perspectives to the table. No one perceived exactly the same thing from each speaker or huaka‘i. And yet I was surrounded by a cohort of students who felt the same as I did, who felt the same passion about sustainability.”

Fellows in Action

Fieldwork

The sustainability fellows participated in a wide range of field activities to see first-hand how Hawai‘i’s supply chain works – and explore the opportunities and challenges as it relates to sustainability practices. (Above) Students visiting H-Power (Honolulu Program of Waste Energy Recovery) at Campbell Industrial Park. The plant processes up to 3,000 tons of garbage per day; burning it in its furnaces to generate energy for civilian use. (Bottom left) The fellows paid a visit to Young Brothers in the Honolulu Harbor to gain a better understanding of the distribution of goods within the state. The company can transport up to 60,000 tons of products inter island. (Bottom right) The cohort went to a solar farm to learn about agrivoltaic systems – which merge solar energy in the production of agricultural produce.

Climate Career Café

The event was designed to inform students about the wide range of career options in sustainability. Some of the entities that presented included G70, Oceanit and Hawai‘i Green Growth.

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS

The students heard from a variety of esteemed leaders this summer – including Wren Westcoatt, VP of development for Longroad Energy, Alana Kobayashi ’93 Pakkala, CEO of the Kobayashi Group and Jeff Mikulina, executive director of Climate Hawai‘i.