He Screamed at the Top of His Lungs When He Found Out. He's Already Planning What He'll Do When He Gets Back. The Waialua Freshman Is Going to South Korea.
One of 42 public high school students selected for the 2026 Hawaiʻi Sister-State Study Tours.
Student Snapshot
Name: Rig Lindley-Molina
Preferred Name: Rig
School: Waialua High and Intermediate School
Grade: 9th (Freshman)
Home Community: Waialua, North Shore, Oʻahu — inferred from school; confirmed by school motto and community identity in essay
Delegation: Jeju Island
Travel Dates: March 14–25/26, 2026
Focus Interests / Extracurriculars: After School All Stars (ASAS) — attended through intermediate school, including Hawaiian Value Day; spoke at Orlando conference for "A Brighter Future" (After School Hawaii program, summer 2024); volleyball team support volunteer (6 hours the day he submitted his application); photography class; robotics; homecoming; straight-A student; gaming and tech knowledge; plans to join PAAC global action projects after trip (homeless donation drives, recycling, island cleanup)
Career Aspirations: Wants to see the world; graduate as valedictorian; attend a great college; community service and advocacy through PAAC global action projects — he names specific projects: supporting the homeless through organized donations, recycling, island cleanup
Why They Were Selected
Rig spent his intermediate school years at After School All Stars, where Wednesdays were Hawaiian Value Day — the day, he wrote, when everyone could express their Hawaiian side and truly feel like they belong. Nobody felt left out. He took that feeling with him to Orlando, where he spoke on behalf of Hawaiian youth at a national program. He came back and kept showing up — six hours for his volleyball team, straight A's, photography, robotics, and a specific plan to join PAAC's global action projects the moment he gets back from Jeju. He is fourteen years old. His school motto is "Growing in respect and rooted in aloha." He lives it.
What They're Excited About
Screaming and shaking when he got in; going to Jeju; learning about traditions and heritage; meeting new people and understanding what they do and why; joining PAAC's global action projects; making his family proud; seeing the world
Every Wednesday Was Hawaiian Value Day. No One Felt Left Out. That Room Shaped Him. Now the Waialua Freshman Is Going to Jeju.
When Rig Lindley-Molina was in intermediate school, his favorite day of the week was Wednesday. That was Hawaiian Value Day at After School All Stars — the day, he wrote, when everyone could express their Hawaiian side and truly feel like they belong. Nobody felt left out or bad about themselves. Everyone was happy. Those Wednesdays, he said, shaped him into a young teen who focuses on the good things to come instead of the bad things from the past. That's the student PAAC selected. This spring, the Waialua High freshman is going to Jeju Island.
Rig already knows what it feels like to represent Hawaiʻi on a bigger stage — the summer before ninth grade, he traveled to Orlando to speak on behalf of After School Hawaii's "A Brighter Future" program at a national conference. He came home to Waialua and kept showing up: six hours volunteering for his volleyball team the day he submitted this application, straight A's, photography, robotics. His school motto is "Growing in respect and rooted in aloha." He wrote that he'll show his school off any day of the week. He's already planning what he'll do when he gets back from Jeju — join PAAC's global action projects, organize donations for the homeless, work on recycling and cleanup across Oʻahu. He's fourteen.
Rig was selected because he already understands what belonging feels like — and what it costs when it's absent — and he has been working to extend that feeling outward ever since. He went to Orlando. He stayed six hours. He applied to go to Jeju. He wants to learn about other people's traditions and heritage, understand what they do and why they do it, and bring it back to make Waialua better.
"My favorite day was Wednesday, Hawaiian Value Day — the day we could express our Hawaiian side and truly feel like we belong. No one felt left out or bad about themselves. Everyone was happy." — Rig Lindley-Molina, Waialua High and Intermediate School, Class of 2029
When Rig comes home to Waialua from Jeju, his family will be proud — he said so, and he means it. For a North Shore community that gave him the room to figure out who he is, that homecoming is the whole point.
