She Made a Vision Board for This Program. She Talked to Her Parents About It Every Day. When the Notification Came, She Shook.
One of 42 public high school students selected for the 2026 Hawaiʻi Sister-State Study Tours.
Student Snapshot
Name: Indica Brown
Preferred Name: Indie or Indica
School: Kailua High School
Grade: 11th
Home Community: Kailua, Oʻahu
Delegation: Jeju Island
Travel Dates: March 14–25/26, 2026
Focus Interests / Extracurriculars: Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) REMS summer program — 31 days, college credit, marine research on algal preferences of organisms at Moku o Loʻe, presented findings to a professional audience; REMS Excel program (current school year); Kailua High PAAC Club Officer (Historian); Key Club — Mālama mentor (weekly one-on-one mentoring of an elementary student); Eco Club; studying Japanese; sewing; photography and filming; moved out of Hawaiʻi twice (Arizona and Florida, two years each)
Career Aspirations: Environmental science — marine biology specifically; she names this explicitly and has already spent 31 days doing it professionally at HIMB
Why They Were Selected
Indica spent 31 days at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology the summer before this application — presenting research, working alongside a PhD student as a peer, and standing in front of an audience of established scientists with her findings. She's also been mentoring an elementary student every Monday after school through Key Club, documenting her PAAC Club's story as its historian, and dreaming about international travel long enough to make a vision board about it. She built toward this trip deliberately and specifically. When the notification came, she shook.
What They're Excited About
The shaking-with-anticipation moment when the notification appeared; the vision board; the daily conversations with her parents about getting in; opening the letter and finding out it was Jeju, her first choice; the vibrant fields; the like-minded peers; her first time outside the country; bringing everything back to her PAAC club at Kailua High
She Made a Vision Board for This Program. She Talked to Her Parents About It Every Day. When the Notification Came, She Shook.
Indica Brown made a vision board. Not a metaphorical one — an actual vision board, for this program, for Jeju Island, for the trip she had been talking about with her parents every single day. When the notification finally popped up on her phone, she felt herself shake — partly anticipation, partly the fear that it might not be a yes. Then she opened the letter. It was Jeju. Her first choice. The Kailua High junior is going to South Korea.
Indica came to this moment through 31 days at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology the summer before she applied. She spent those weeks doing actual research — studying the algal preferences of marine organisms at Moku o Loʻe, working alongside a PhD student who treated her like a peer, and presenting her group's findings in front of established scientists and her own family. She left knowing her purpose: environmental science. Back at Kailua High, she mentors an elementary student every Monday after school through Key Club, serves as the PAAC Club's historian, and is part of the Eco Club. She has been building toward this, deliberately and specifically, for a long time.
Indica was selected because she already knows what it feels like to be a scientist in a room where almost everyone has more credentials than you — and to hold her ground anyway. That experience, working alongside a PhD student despite their knowledge gaps, is exactly the kind of self-possessed presence that makes a strong ambassador. She's going to Jeju to see what environmental stewardship looks like from another island's perspective, and she's going as someone who already has her own research to stand on.
"When the notification popped up on my phone, I immediately felt myself shake... from creating a vision board to discussing it with my parents every day." — Indica Brown, Kailua High School, Class of 2027
When Indica comes home to Kailua from Jeju, she'll bring everything back to her PAAC Club — she said so herself. For a community like Kailua, where the ocean is part of daily life, having a student ambassador who has done real marine research and seen how another island community cares for its land is exactly the kind of knowledge that travels.
