Free Family Learning: Foundations of ALOHATM
Our Foundations of ALOHA (FOA) program creates opportunities to join an intergenerational community of practice that collectively works to grow our homes, workplaces, and selves into centers for learning, rejuvenation, and joy.
This free virtual synchronous program combines lessons and experiences we have gathered as teachers, parents, entrepreneurs, and voyagers; our core teachings are guided by the wisdom of renowned storyteller and community leader Pono Shim, who shared with the world the teachings and inspiration of his Aunty Pilahi Paki.
We invite you to register for our upcoming cohorts
- Cohort 33 (1.19.2025 – 2.23.2025) at bit.ly/cohort33reg
and join a community of practice that spans generations of learners on all islands, from all walks of life – hundreds of folks from ages 8 months to 80 years old have joined in since we launched this program in May 2020. We welcome you to the FOA ʻohana!
A supply kit that we lovingly call “The Box” has been funded during previous cohorts through generous support from Omidyar ʻOhana, Castle Foundation, American Savings Bank, Hawaii Life Charitable Foundation, Atherton Foundation, Office of Hawaiian Education, Oahu Economic Development Board, and individual donors who help us provide materials for families and educators. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to EI to help fund boxes for this and future cohorts, we would gratefully accept the support we have a donation page here or you can contact us if you would like to send us a donation directly rather than online.
Consulting: Aloha x DesignTM
Through our Aloha x Design approach, we help you to navigate your personal and professional endeavors towards purpose, passion and joy, grounded in ALOHA. We work closely with each prospective client to identify what outcomes they seek, in order to craft specific approaches to help you achieve success for your business or organization. Whether this work is a customized Foundations of ALOHA or Innovation With ALOHA program or professional development, or support for curriculum development anchored in place, purpose, and passion, or strategic visioning and facilitation for your organization or effort, we want to support you on your journey to be empowered as an organization and leader. Our goal is to support you in your journey, not to sell you a service or product to keep you coming back to us.
Youth and School Programs: Innovation With Aloha (IWA)TM
Innovation With Aloha focuses on bringing the practices associated with innovation and entrepreneurship to educational contexts, through workshops, classes, curriculum design, and professional development.
IWA focuses on community problem-solving and solution-generating through the lens of passion, purpose, and positive-change, helping youth and educators to turn learning into opportunities for positive impact in local communities.
This work includes classes and experiences in design thinking, rapid prototyping, product development, essentials of entrepreneurship, and creative confidence. Thank you to our SY2021-22 clients for the opportunity to work with you and your youth!
- Compassionate Koʻolaupoko: A Design Thinking Approach to School-Designed SEL
- Waianaʻe High School Place-Based, Project-Based Learning Professional Development
- Waimea High School Place-Based Design Thinking Professional Development
- La Pietra School for Girls, Place-Based Curriculum Development and Classes
- Olomana School, Place-Based Curriculum Development
- Liliuokalani Trust Creativity Camps and Makerspace Programs
- Kāneʻohe Elementary School Innovation Academy
- Boys & Girls Club of Hawaiʻi Place-Based Purpose-Development Program
- University of Hawaiʻi Maui College Place-based STEM Curriculum Development and Professional Development
Our Early Work: Moonshot Lab Hawaiʻi
In partnership with Janus Group and EdTech Team, EI launched the first Moonshot Lab in the world, Moonshot Lab Hawaiʻi (MSLHI), out of Kamehameha School’s Hālau ʻInana Mā Kapaʻakea facility. Instead of lectures and worksheets, students and teachers partnered with community experts to learn about and identify solutions to challenges in their communities, engaging in active inquiry, iterative solution generation, and rapid prototyping of potential solutions. Our team of experienced teachers (specialists in STEM, social emotional learning, character education) partnered with local experts in science, design, engineering, social welfare, and other sectors to help our young designers develop innovative solutions to challenges facing Hawaiʻi.
We launched in 2017 with 5 public schools, 30 teachers, and 200 kids; in the 3 official years of the program, we worked with hundreds of kids and teachers on a wide range of needs from preventing native plant extinction to Hawaiian language revitalization to no-kill animal shelters to incorporating healthy diets into schools through gaming and locally sourced menus. Youth and adults reported that they felt safe and supported to explore, take risks, and fail forward in their learning – and like they could cause dramatic changes in the world.
From that work, we evolved our Innovation With Aloha and Aloha x Design frameworks, which permeate through all of our programs and services.
Mahalo to other members of the Year 1 team who helped us to launch; Stephanie Shipton, Brendan Brennan, Marybeth Baldwin, Chris Bell, Stacy Ferreira, and Brian Hallett!