Alaka`ina Foundation Family of Companies

STEM Across the Alaka`ina Foundation Family of Companies (FOCs) for the Federal Government

Certified in 2004 as a Native Hawaiian Organization (NHO), the Alaka`ina Foundation Family of Companies (FOCs) is comprised of industry-recognized government service firms who are designated as Native Hawaiian Organization (NHO)-Owned. We are committed to serving as a trusted partner on projects of vital importance to the Nation's defense and well-being and majority of our work falls under Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Our Total Solutions involve positions that are largely in part STEM and offer our talent the ability to think outside of the box with problem solutions, development of new ideas and conducting of complex research. Total Solutions consists of work in the Base Operations, Range Operations, Information Technology Service Solutions, Biomedical Defense, Telecommunications, and Emergency & Disaster Risk Reduction and Management domains. Our cadre of personnel range from Fire Fighters, Emergency Technicians, Security Specialists, Airfield Operators, Range Network Engineers, IT/Communications Systems Engineers, Base Communications and Alarm Systems Technicians, Research Scientists, Laboratory Technicians, Research Microbiologists, Cell Biologists, Biodefense Regulated Laboratory Analysts, Research Veterinarians, Registered Nurse Case Managers, System Administrators, Application Developers, Enterprise Architects, Telecommunications Engineers, and Train-the-Trainers to name a few.

Personnel and Customer Impact in STEM Based Initiatives

The FOCs also takes into consideration our customers’ own charitable goals and programs. A few contracts in which we have had personnel directly support STEM based initiatives or customer driven STEM based programs are the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) and the United States Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory (ARL). Through our joint venture (Manu Kai) on the PMRF contract, we have historically teamed up with the Barking Sands Fire & Emergency Services who serves the local Hawaiian community “over & beyond” with station tours from pre to middle schools. Volunteer Firefighters have also visited the Waimea Canyon Middle School, Ele’ele Elementary and Kekaha Elementary in support of Career Day. Manu Kai personnel have also been known to participate in the Adopt-A-Highway effort in which the Manu Kai members collected 35 bags of litter; and in the Hanapepe Summer Fun Career Day where sixty children and 12 adults had the opportunity to interact with our presenter. In this part of the Career Day process, the presenter used activities that encouraged students to consider what they want to be when they grow up. Two display boards with pictures of the duties we do as firefighters and EMTs at PMRF were displayed for the audience. Under the USAARL contract, we had personnel directly support the customers mission to engage in the development of the next generation of Army scientists and engineers to carry out the Laboratory’s research, development, and acquisition mission. To achieve this goal, STEM education engaged and educated pre-kindergarten through college students, post-graduates, and faculty to familiarize them with military science and engineering and to educate them through hands-on, inquiry-based, in-laboratory internships, STEM-based educational scholarships, and STEM competitions. As such, our personnel supported the USAARL Science Information Center (SIC), which provides technology transfer, public affairs, editorial, scientific reference/library, and STEM education services.

Activities/Resources

Your STEM Mission

The purpose of this activity is to acquaint the students with the varied careers that are available in research, leadership, military, and biomedical science and engineering, through a fun activity that uses key words from our web site to engage the students. The clues and answers are on our Total Solutions web page. (https://www.alakainafoundation.com/total-solutions) The first 2 pages are the activity and the second 2 pages are the answers.

At the end of the activity, the completed word sheets display a snapshot of STEM activities that Alaka`ina is involved in with government contracting.

Activity/Resource PDF: https://tempstemed.unm.edu/stemrc22/sites/default/files/webform/activity/STEM%20Research%20Challenge%20Activity%5B36%5D.pdf

Contact Information

Charles Tyus
Director of Corporate Services
ctyus@alakaina.com
https://www.alakainafoundation.com