The Staff at His Elementary School Treated Him Like a Nephew. That's When Hawaiʻi Changed Him.
One of 42 public high school students selected for the 2026 Hawaiʻi Sister-State Study Tours.
Student Snapshot
Name: Eldrich Khaleel Pagaran
Preferred Name: Eldrich
School: Honokaʻa High and Intermediate School
Grade: 11th
Home Community: Honokaʻa, Hawaiʻi Island (Big Island)
Delegation: Okinawa
Travel Dates: March 14–25/26, 2026
Focus Interests / Extracurriculars: Digital Production Club (Treasurer), Science Club (Treasurer), FCCLA Club; works for family house cleaning business; Saturday caretaker for elderly couple; volunteer tutor at former middle school; painter, sculptor, crafter, crocheter, musician (bass guitar), videographer, photographer, digital designer, baker, gardener; won 2nd place in vlogging competition
Career Aspirations: Environmental stewardship within the tourism industry — he wants to advocate for sustainable practices in Hawaiʻi's hotels and resorts and use global models to drive change locally and internationally
Why They Were Selected
Eldrich grew up in a place with pollution and disregard for the land, moved to Hawaiʻi, and was transformed — not just by the culture of environmental stewardship he found here, but by the way strangers at his elementary school treated him like a nephew. He came out of his shell because of how Hawaiʻi welcomed him. Now he wants to take that experience of being changed by a place and use it to change how tourism treats the planet. His focus isn't abstract — he's thought specifically about hotels, resorts, and the gap between what Hawaiʻi values and what tourists practice.
What They're Excited About
Learning about different cultures of environmental stewardship; making connections; representing his community in Honokaʻa; the disbelief-turned-excitement of being selected
The Staff at His Elementary School Treated Him Like a Nephew. That's When Hawaiʻi Changed Him.
Eldrich Pagaran was seven years old when he moved from Laoag City in Ilocos Norte to Hawaiʻi — quiet, reserved, new to the country and the language. But something unexpected happened at his elementary school. The staff treated him like a nephew, like a grandson, despite barely knowing him. "This was a major catalyst towards my current personality," he says, "and what made me come out of my shell." That's the thing about Hawaiʻi: it has a way of doing that. Now a junior at Honokaʻa High and Intermediate School on the Big Island, Eldrich is headed to Okinawa this March as a PAAC Sister-State Student Ambassador — and he's carrying that lesson with him.
Eldrich is the kind of student who doesn't leave gaps in his schedule. He's treasurer of both the Digital Production Club and the Science Club, a member of FCCLA, a videographer who won second place in a vlogging competition, a painter, a bass guitarist, a baker, and someone who spends his Saturdays caring for an elderly couple and his after-school hours helping tutor younger students. He also works in his family's house cleaning business. He does all of this from Honokaʻa — a small town on the Big Island's north side — and he is deeply aware of what Hawaiʻi gave him that the Philippines couldn't.
That awareness is exactly why he was selected. Eldrich grew up in Ilocos Norte where, as he puts it, people didn't take care of the land. Hawaiʻi showed him something different — a community where environmental stewardship is part of daily life. He's taken that contrast and turned it into a clear policy vision: Hawaiʻi's tourism industry should lead the world in environmental responsibility, not just profit from its natural beauty while undermining it.
"Instead of making more attractions to increase tourism, we should put more effort into ensuring that hotels and resorts don't harm the environment and that tourists aren't taking advantage of our land and disrespecting it." — Eldrich Khaleel Pagaran, Honokaʻa High and Intermediate School, Class of 2027
When Eldrich returns to Honokaʻa from Okinawa, he'll bring back more than cultural observations — he'll bring back data points for an argument he's already been making. For legislators thinking about the future of tourism in Hawaiʻi, that's not a student trip. That's constituent-level research.
