At the end of last year, I wrote about our new initiatives for 2025 and since then our areas of focus have only proven more relevant — and urgent. 

Even before federal cutbacks and deportation initiatives surfaced, we had brought on a reporter, Jeremy Hay, to cover economic inequality and launched Sunshine Sundays to intensify our spotlight on government transparency. 

Even before climate change became a dirty word we kicked off our full slate of 2025 events with a talk story event featuring Deputy Editor Nathan Eagle interviewing a lead NOAA scientist about climate-related problems in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument — whose future is now in the Trump administration’s hands — and we’ve begun our travel to other parts of the Pacific to track the human effects of global warming.

And, despite the federal about-face on diversity, equity and inclusion, we’re pressing ahead with our Pipeline Project, an effort to help nurture and promote journalists from Hawaiʻi and the broader Pacific region.

It’s an ambitious goal against the headwinds of outmigration from these islands, along with the downsizing of media that make this a less attractive career for young people. We knew that from the start — but we also know that reporters and editors with deep connections to this state are an essential ingredient in explaining its complexity.

I’m excited to share our successes so far.

We have hired three school-year interns from University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa’s journalism program, thanks to a partnership with their professor, John Temple. One of them is working with our engagement team, the other two are assisting with Sunshine Sundays.

You can expect to see Caylie Watson in person at Civil Beat events and her work across our social channels. Before long you can also expect to see bylines from Alyssa Francesca Salcedo and Valentina Lewis. 

Caylie lived in Germany, Oʻahu and the U.S. mainland as a child, then returned to ʻEwa Beach to complete high school at Island Pacific Academy in Kapolei. She’s a junior in journalism at UH, where she has written for the student paper about the challenges of being a commuter student. She also works part-time as an administrative assistant with the John A. Burns School of Medicine. Last summer she was a communications intern for the Childhood Cancer Society.

Caylie knows she wants to work in some form of media, so she welcomes the opportunity as a community engagement intern at Civil Beat to learn about all aspects of a modern newsroom. Her events and social media responsibilities here are “allowing me to gauge my abilities in those areas.”

Alyssa immigrated to Hawaiʻi from the Philippines at age 4 and went on to become valedictorian at Waipahu High School. Last summer she was an intern for “The Conversation” with Hawaiʻi Public Radio and she expects to complete her B.A. this spring in journalism with a minor in political science.

In her cover letter, Alyssa summed it up: “As a young person from Waipahu, I believe that I would bring a unique perspective to this position, especially for a newsroom that recognizes their current lack of local voices from Hawaiʻi.”

Valentina, who goes by Tia, was born and raised in Wailuku, Maui, and graduated with honors from Seabury Hall. She began her college career at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University before transferring to UH, where she is currently a junior.

Last summer she was an intern with AsAm News, a daily news site based in Southern California dedicated to coverage of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

In her cover letter, Tia also touched on what prompted her to apply: “Civil Beat’s focus on hiring local staff who understand Hawaiʻi’s communities is something I deeply admire … Through writing, I hope to highlight underrepresented voices and contribute to building a more informed and connected Hawaiʻi.”

All of this is a good start — but it’s not enough.

This spring, we are hosting a journalism boot camp for local high school students in our offices in Kaimukī in partnership with Cindy Reves, Hawaiʻi state director for the Journalism Education Association. We are working with John Temple and his class on “UH Beat,” for which we have embedded a journalist — Blaze Lovell — in the classroom as a coach for student stories, some of which you can expect to see co-published on our site. 

We’ve also signed up to hire a summer intern through the Hawai’i chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists — a program Civil Beat has been proud to support for many years, and which has helped lure entry-level journalists back to their home state for full-time jobs. 

And, on our wishlist for the fall is a Civil Beat Pipeline Fellowship for an established journalist. That one we still need to raise funds to support. So stay tuned.