Photos: 2024 PacYES event motivates and inspires high school students of Pacific Islander heritage

Posted on November 1, 2024November 3, 2025 by Staff

250 students attended presentations, workshops and panel discussions, and then a resource fair showcasing UH Hilo programs and support services, career possibilities, poster presentations, and community organizations.

Three students at the entrance to the plaza, one holds a PacYES sign with an arrow toward the event location. — Three students welcome participants and help them find their way to the 2024 PacYES event held Oct. 19 at the Campus Center Plaza, UH Hilo. (Photo: PacYES)

Overhead view of the plaza venue packed with people.

Chancellor Irwin and the whole venue and seated attendees from overhead. — Overhead view of Chancellor Irwin taking a selfie at the event. (Courtesy photo from PacYES)

By Susan Enright/UH Hilo Stories, with Neilynn Domnick/PacYES contributing. Photos by Julia Polloi, Ben Lat, and Myleen Espejo.

The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo hosted the 11th Annual Pacific Youth Empowerment for Success (PacYES) conference on Oct. 19. The purpose of the yearly event is to motivate, inspire, and prepare high school students of Pacific Islander heritage for college and career opportunities as well as to foster cultural connections within their own communities.

Parents were also welcomed to attend this year’s event as they, too, need to understand the educational system and be acquainted with some of the service providers.

Chancellor with students seated in the background. — Chancellor Irwin takes a selfie with students in the background, 2024 PacYES, Oct. 19. (Photo from the Chancellor)

Chancellor Bonnie D. Irwin welcomed everyone to the event which was attended by more than 250 Hawaiʻi Island intermediate and high school students of Pacific Islander heritage.

In her remarks, Chancellor Irwin said she was honored and thrilled to welcome the students to campus. “We pride ourselves on being one of the most diverse campuses in the country and, even more, that this diversity of people feel welcome on our campus and in our community. Today you will hear about the rich array of opportunities before you. Listen with intention. Think and dream about what your voyage will be. At your local university and your local college here on Hawaiʻi Island, you have teams of people ready and waiting to help you realize those dreams.”

Mayor Roth, with mic, gestures toward banner. — Mayor Mitch Roth delivers remarks at the 2024 PacYES event, Oct. 19, UH Hilo. (Photo: PacYES)

PacYES was previously known as Pacific Islander Youth Empowerment Day back when it started in 2010, sponsored by the County of Hawaiʻi Office of the Prosecutor. The prosecutor at that time was Mitch Roth, who is now mayor of the county. He has attended every annual PacYes event since 2010.

Inspired by the ancestral Pacific Islander culture of navigation, PacYES has always been about “Navigating Success.” This year’s theme reflected that: “Resilient Roots and Flourishing Future,” or in Hawaiian, “Ka Honua Lewa, Ka Honua Paʻa.”

In explaining the theme, Neilynn Domnick, a UH Hilo alumna (communication, 2022) and outreach coordinator for PacYES, says that honua is a word for earth but it also can refer to one’s foundation.

“Honua lewa is a term from the Pele chants that speak to the movement of magma, embedded in this idea is that with magma and volcanism, we see the reforestation of that land through the root system of the forest and dispersal of its seeds. Ka Honua paʻa is the idea that earth is constant and will endure.”

“Lewa and paʻa are good words to couple together, as they are opposites, an idea from the theme: roots and future,” Domnick continues. “Also, both words serve to anchor the word lewa with its opposite, paʻa. The idea of the earth being paʻa also connotes that it flourishes.”

Keynote speaker

Keynote speaker Shania Gootineg Tamagyongfal, an alumna of UH Hilo who attended PacYES as a high school student, has served as a PacYES volunteer and spoke last year on a panel at the event. She was born and raised in Hilo and is of Yapese descent. Her family is from the village of Toruw in the municipality of Maap, located on the northeast side of the island of Yap.

UH Hilo alumna takes her heritage management knowledge to Yap (UH Hilo Stories, July 23, 2024)

Tamagyongfal earned her bachelor of arts in anthropology at UH Hilo in 2020 with a certificate in Pacific Islands studies; she received the Outstanding Anthropology Student award. She then earned her master of arts in heritage management in 2024 while serving as a graduate student peer mentor in the Keaholoa STEM Scholars Program. Her master’s thesis focused on using oral histories of Marshallese and Yapese voyaging to support the development of community engagement for sustainable sea transport.

Speakers

The PacYES conference included several inspirational speakers. Students speakers were Kobe Moses, Evangeline Lokebol, and Sancheryn Betiru, who talked about the significance of setting ambitious goals and the pursuit of further education as a potential pathway to attain a desirable career.

Every year, Mayor Roth gives either the welcoming or closing remarks. This year he gave the closing remarks, as he emphasized to the students to “Dream, Believe, Achieve.” In keeping with the theme, Roth gave the closing remarks speaking on his voyaging journey from a little boy who did not graduate high school, saying that he persevered through big dreams.

Mayor Roth asked for students to come forward for a “star activity” that he does every year, encouraging them to write their dreams on a paper star in hopes to convince the students to dream big dreams. The stars were then placed on a banner reading, “You can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails!”

Mayor Roth with students sticking their stars on the banner. — Mayor Roth, at left, encourages students to write their dream on a star…

Banner filled with paper stars. — …. and pin it on the banner, “SUCCESS: You can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails!”

Presentations and workshops

There also were presentations and workshops at the event.

TeAda Productions, a theater company based in Los Angeles that’s dedicated to telling the stories of immigrants, refugees, and Indigenous communities, was on campus for a three-day residency to conduct workshops and present several showings of their production, Nothing Micro About Micronesia at the UH Hilo Performing Arts Center. They conducted a presentation at the PacYES event.

Visiting theater company immerses UH Hilo Pacific literature class in community building workshop (UH Hilo Stories, Oct. 30, 2024)

Five performers on stage, holding hands, facing audience. — TeAda Productions theater company on stage at the PacYES event, Oct. 19, UH Hilo. (Photo: PacYES)

Three presenters at front of lecture hall with images above on screen. — Workshops were also part of PacYES event. (Photo from PacYES)

Info tables

Several groups and organizations from UH Hilo and the general Hawaiʻi Island community had tables set up on the Campus Center Plaza filled with information, arts and crafts, posters, and more.