Student leaders in UH Hilo’s Bonner Program share and celebrate their community-based projects
Two graduating Bonner Leaders present capstone projects with community impact: one with an eye toward getting students more connected within the university community, and one a potentially transformational pilot project for the local food bank.
By Susan Enright/UH Hilo Stories.
University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo students participating in a highly successful support program, in which the nascent scholars give to the campus and local communities as much as they receive, have produced amazing results in their projects.
The UH Hilo Bonner Program, launched in 2021 by the university’s Center for Community Engagement, is part of the national nonprofit Bonner Program network whose mission is to help develop student leaders who will have a positive impact on their communities. Through paid employment with community organizations and on-campus units, students Bonner Leaders acquire real-world skills that help them build self-esteem and the confidence to successfully tackle their academic studies, while also helping them prepare for meaningful careers and fulfilling lives.
“In this four-year program grounded in community engagement, students become part of a national network of changemakers,” says Julie Mowrer, director of the Center for Community Engagement. “They spend eight to 10 hours each week in our community, learning from and with our community in areas of conservation, caring for our kupuna, serving as role models for our keiki, and so much more. They learn that citizenship isn’t passive, but that we each have a kuleana to contribute to positive change, and they’re not waiting until after graduation to begin.”
Here’s a look at the capstone projects of two graduating Bonner Leaders, one with an eye toward getting students more connected within the university community, and one a potentially transformational pilot project for the local food bank.
Capstone Projects, presented April 29
On April 29 at a community event held on campus, two graduating Bonner Leaders, Leiya Torrano and Hayden Niles, shared their capstone projects with their mentors and supporters. Here are the two students’ projects.
Leiya Torrano
Business administration major Leila Torrano shared her capstone project titled, “Kūlia i ka Nuʻu: Striving for the Highest, One-Week College Preparation Program” (see the project’s website).
“As a first generation student, I have learned that much of my success at UH Hilo was made possible because of the support of my community and the programs I have joined,” says Torrano, a graduate of Honokaʻa High School on Hawaiʻi Island. “The goal of this capstone project was to use the voices of our current UH Hilo students to create a program that supports our local high school first-generation students through developing skills that will help them reach their highest goals when they begin their college journey.”
Torrano’s capstone project leveraged her own background as a Honokaʻa High School alumna and first-generation college student with two younger sisters who look up to her as a role model. She conducted a survey of first-generation students at UH Hilo, learned some of the common struggles and misconceptions, and then developed a one-week virtual college preparation program for high school students who would be the first in their families to attend college.
With participants from high schools in Kealakehe, Konawaena, Keaʻau, Kohala, and her alma mater in Honokaʻa, the final day of the project was spent on the UH Hilo campus, with other Bonner students joining as mentors. Assistant Professor of Management Hee Sun Kim and Professor of Political Science Sarah Marusek, along with students from UH Hilo’s pharmacy program, provided fun and engaging workshops.
Hayden Niles
Marine science major Harden Niles, who completed a long-term internship with the The Food Basket, a Hawaiʻi Island food bank, shared his project titled, “Hydroponics at the Food Basket: Unlimited Potential.”
“Over the past two-and-a-half years I have worked with vertical hydroponic towers at the Food Basket,” says Niles, who hails from Waubay, South Dakota. In his presentation he shared his experiences and knowledge on how his pilot project might be applied to areas in need and to Hawaiʻi Island as a whole.
The Food Basket had purchased a hydroponics system but didn’t have anyone to set it up and get it going, so Niles stepped in. Over time, he experimented with different plants and was so successful that he shared the system with visitors from not just Hawaiʻi, but from all over the world. One visitor from Guam, for example, was describing the cost of lettuce being over $10, making it challenging to provide healthy foods. This system, with the ability to provide over 500 lettuce heads a month, has served as a pilot for The Food Basket to consider investing in a larger structure with the potential to produce approximately 6,000 lettuce heads a month.
- Learn more about the project: UH Hilo marine science major Hayden Niles lands internship at The Food Basket (April 9, 2024, UH Hilo Stories)
In his capstone presentation, Niles also shared the many benefits of hydroponically grown foods such as nutrients, longer shelf life, fewer pesticides, easier to chew for kupuna and keiki, water use being 90% less than traditional agriculture, reduced shipping costs and growth times.
“This has not only been a learning experience for me, but also a potentially transformational pilot project for the Food Basket,” says Niles.
Student Voices Initiative, presented April 29
Also this semester, a group of Bonner Leaders facilitated a project with peer-led focus groups at UH Hilo to learn about the general student population’s need to feel connected to the campus community.
“What we were seeing in higher education was a need for student sense of belonging and connection,” says Mowrer, noting those feelings directly affect future goals, mindsets, and skillsets. Through nine focus groups totaling 65 students, the purpose of the peer-led project was to “empower student voices” with a focus on “their sense of belonging on campus.”
This project was supported by the Student Success Equity Initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the organization that oversees UH Hilo’s accreditation. Director of Institutional Research Jennifer Stotter served as principle investigator on this project, with Bonner Coordinator Shania Tamagyongfal and Associate Director of the Campus Center Matt Kalahiki training the students in facilitation and project management and Stotter training the students in data analysis.
The student facilitators learned that while both academic and social sense of belonging rank fairly high, social belonging is lower with 26% of students ranking it at the lowest level of belonging and 74% ranking it at the highest level of belonging. Students remark that campus clubs allow them to “get involved, meet new people and feel included.”
However, students see needed improvements in how information is communicated; they often feel overwhelmed with the number of emails they receive on a daily basis. They give a shout-out to Kīpuka Native Hawaiian Student Center and its First Year Experience program for their communication formats that make it easy for students to skim and get the information most relevant to them.
Developing stronger awareness of resources available is a strong need. Students note they often hinder themselves by not wanting to leave their comfort zones; a recommendation is for departments and programs to host smaller events that might be less intimidating for students to join — Math Jam is noted as an example of this already happening.
Finally, the student facilitators see value in institutionalizing the Student Voices Initiative, as students who participated were able to learn from one another and know that many of the things they were experiencing were not theirs alone.
Through this investigation, Bonner students developed recommendations and presented them to the UH Hilo Campus Leadership Team on April 24, with a campus-wide presentation shared April 29. The plan is for the data to be used to create positive institutional changes at UH Hilo.
Celebration of Learning, May 2
The UH Hilo Bonner’s cohorts gathered for a Celebration of Learning event May 2, 2026. Bonner Leaders, internship sponsors and community supporters, UH Hilo staff and administrators, all gathered for a festive, fun event to honor the students and their projects.
Story by Susan Enright, public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
