Forty-two Hawaiʻi public high schoolers spent spring break in Okinawa, Jeju, and Ilocos — then stood before diplomats and senators to report what they found: cultural renaissance parallels, disappearing traditions, and a governor across the Pacific who understood what Lahaina lost.

From a handmade lei placed on Governor Denny Tamaki's shoulders to a day inside the Himeyuri Peace Museum, fifteen Hawaiʻi students spent ten days in Okinawa confronting war, culture, and a striking mirror of home — and left calling each other family. Ichiriba chōdē: once we meet, we are family.

Dragon Head Rock. The Haenyeo divers. A massacre most students had never heard of. Fourteen Hawaiʻi public school ambassadors spent spring break on Jeju Island discovering a place so close to home it startled them — and came back asking harder questions about their own.

From a Vigan cobblestone street to a loom that demanded their full bodies to a US Embassy conversation that felt like a lightbulb moment — thirteen Hawaiʻi students spent twelve days in the Ilocos discovering a place that had been sending its people to Hawaiʻi for over a century, and being welcomed like they were already known.

All three 2026 Sister-State cohorts independently chose the same value to guide them: aloha. Before 42 students ever boarded a plane to Okinawa, Jeju, or the Ilocos, they spent two days at orientation learning what that word actually asks of them once they land.

Expanded from 14 to 42 student ambassadors, the 2026 Hawaiʻi Sister-State Study Tours mark a major investment in the next generation of leaders. With statewide representation and subsidized access, PAAC and the East-West Center are building Hawaiʻi’s global leadership pipeline.