"I Would Like to Do Something Similar to Help Make Hawaiʻi a Better Place" — A Baldwin Freshman Whose Family Serves Maui in Every Direction Is Headed to South Korea.
One of 42 public high school students selected for the 2026 Hawaiʻi Sister-State Study Tours.
Student Snapshot
Name: Levi Short
School: Baldwin High School
Grade: 9th
Home Community: Wailuku, Maui
Delegation: Jeju Island
Travel Dates: March 14–25, 2026
Focus Interests / Extracurriculars: Wrestling; track; judo; surfing; skating; gymnastics; school broadcasting; photo/media production; computer science; personal videography experience. His wrestling coach brought the head coach of Okada Waseda University in Tokyo to their gym to train — connecting his sport directly to Japanese excellence
Career Aspirations: Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania, combined with wrestling at the collegiate level
Why They Were Selected
Levi is a freshman whose father is a fire captain in Hana, whose grandparents both teach at Iao Intermediate, and whose wrestling coach imported a head coach from Okada Waseda University to help the team understand what makes Japan number one. He surfs, skates, does gymnastics, wrestles, runs track, and does judo — and he still found time to apply to an international study tour because he wants to see Hawaiʻi recognized globally the way it deserves to be. He ended his application by asking: "How can I find out about more opportunities like this?" That question tells you everything.
What They're Excited About
Pure excitement; seeing what other parts of the world are like and how they compare to Maui; the whole family being proud and excited with him
His Wrestling Coach Flew in the Head Coach From Japan's Top University Program to Train His Team. The Freshman Paid Attention. Now He's Going to Jeju.
Levi Short's wrestling coach wanted to understand what makes Japan the number one wrestling country in the world. So he brought the head coach of Okada Waseda University in Tokyo to their gym in Maui to find out. Levi was one of the wrestlers in that room. He paid attention. And when he heard about the chance to go to Jeju Island as a Sister-State Student Ambassador, he thought: this is how you make Hawaiʻi better — you go see how others do it, and you bring it home. The Baldwin High freshman is going to South Korea.
Levi is the kind of ninth grader who does not have a short list of activities. He wrestles, runs track, does judo, surfs, skates, and does gymnastics. He's been doing photo and media production since seventh grade and is part of his school's broadcasting program. His family is woven into Maui's public institutions in every direction — his father is a fire captain in Hana, his grandparents both teach at Iao Intermediate, his stepmother is an ER nurse at Maui Memorial Medical Center, his grandfather is a doctor at Kaiser. He wants to study marketing and wrestle at the University of Pennsylvania. He ended his application by asking: "How can I find out about more opportunities like this?"
Levi was selected because he already thinks the way this program is designed to develop: he sees a gap — Hawaiʻi athletes under-scouted because mainland colleges see the islands as a vacation destination — and instead of complaining about it, he asks what Japan does differently and how to bring that back to Maui. That's not a mindset that needs to be taught. It needs to be given a chance.
"Japan is ranked number one in the world for wrestling, so my wrestling coach brought the head coach of Okada Waseda University in Tokyo to our gym... I would like to do something similar to help make Hawaiʻi a better place both academically and on the extracurricular side."
When Levi comes home to Maui from Jeju, he'll return as a freshman who has already been to South Korea, already seen how another island community operates, and already asked the question that drives everything: what can we bring back? For a family that has been serving Maui in fire stations, classrooms, and emergency rooms for generations, that instinct runs in the blood.
