Project Olonā

Welcome to the Project Olonā website! Here you may browse posters made by Kapi'olani Community College students about Project Olonā, a project researching culture and sustainability, view information on the plants currently under research, find out about the faculty, students, and the Kapi'olani Community College STEM Center.

A critical long-term effort is being made to increase the recruitment and retention of college students of Hawaiian Ancestry in diverse scientific professions.  Since 2006, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Program at Kapiʿolani Community College has attracted and retained Native Hawaiian students through the Undergraduate Research Experience (URE), an innovative, nationally-recognized retention strategy that has been shown to increase student success and retention rates.  Project Olonā contextualizes the URE within knowledge of Hawaiian culture and the natural environment, to discover the potential for combining traditional Hawaiian practices with modern scientific research.  The project is focused on a comparative study of common Hawaiian medicinal plants (lāʿau lapaʿau) grown in soil media or hydroponic solutions.      

(Website is under construction, the items found here do not reflect the final version.)