If you will be the Lead Organization for the partnership, click the button above to register to submit a proposal. Please note that the Lead Organization must be based in Hawaii. You can view the Informational Webinar for applicants below and download the presentation slides. Youth apprenticeship is a strategy that helps young people ages […]
Harold K.L. Castle Foundation Announces New Leadership Effective July 1
Dear Friends and Partners in Making Hawai’i a Place Where Our Children Can Thrive, On behalf of the board, I would like to share with you our appointment of two new leaders after current President and CEO Terry George retires on July 1, 2025 after 22 years of dedicated service. I am pleased to announce […]
Read the 2024 Harold K.L. Castle Impact Report
20-Year Windward Oʻahu Lookback
August 1, 2003 was my first day on the job as Executive Director of the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation. I wanted to start by properly grounding myself in this place, so on my lunch hour I went to the area just below Ulupō Heiau in Kailua, just behind the Windward YMCA, looking for Doc Burrows. […]
Post-Secondary Transition Partners Announced
Our recent Request for Partnership sought to identify Hawai’i public high schools that wish to strengthen transition pathways to help students learn more about how to Enlist, Employ or Explore. We specifically looked for school partners who are deeply concerned about life after high school and eager to test innovative ideas targeting students, particularly 11th […]
Youth Voice Hawai’i 2024 Report
How might we better understand the experiences, aspirations and challenges faced by opportunity youth who are not enrolled in post-secondary education, enlisted in the armed forces or exploring long-term career opportunities after high school. ‘A’ali’i Alliance, in partnership with the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, provided a platform for young people to share their perspectives and […]
20-Year Oceans Lookback
I’d like to share with you about my own 20-year learning journey in helping the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation to deploying flexible philanthropic capital to help restore nearshore marine life populations in the Main Hawaiian Islands so that future generations can benefit and learn from this rich natural resource. I’ll bring to light the mistakes […]
20-Year Education Lookback
The Harold K.L. Castle Foundation—founded in 1962 by Harold Kainalu Long Castle, who took a lot of his wealth from Kaneohe Ranch and gave it to this private foundation to make Hawaii a better place—is in a unique position to both think about ideas on public education improvement, and also provide funds to invest in […]
Scaling Opportunity
photo caption: students from Kailua, Kalaheo and Kahuku High Schools celebrate completion of internships with Hawaii Herald, Kuilima Farms, Makai Pet Hospital, Ōlelo Media and Pixar Animation, and Tofu Creative. My interest in education as a career was sparked while watching my grandmother teach French to seventh grade students in upper Manhattan. I was ten at […]
Expanding Our Work in Middle Schools
Think back to your middle school years. How did you feel on your first day walking onto a new campus after spending seven years at your last school? Did you get lost trying to find each of your different classrooms? Do you remember how awkward it felt when the lunch bell rang and you couldn’t […]
Announcing our new Climate Resiliency Strategy
The Harold Castle Foundation’s first new strategy in over 20 years. Photo Credit: Hawaii Sea Grant King Tides Project, Rafael Bergstrom 2017 We are at a critical moment for our state and our planet: we know that unavoidable climate impacts are here and that even with aggressive climate action, they will persist through the second half […]
Maui Will Rise
by Terry GeorgePhoto Credit: Naʻalehu Anthony We are only two weeks into the worst disaster for our state since statehood and the deadliest fire in the United States in over a century. At the time of this writing, the fires in West Maui and upcountry are still not 100% contained, but what we know so […]
Why don’t more students go to college?
Column originally appeared in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on April 30, 2023 By Laura Bekes, Alem Tecle and Alex Harris Only about half (51 percent) of the graduating high school class of 2022 matriculated to a 2- or 4-year college, a statistic that has remained flat for the last several years. This is troubling as higher […]
Get Outside Hawaiʻi!
If you’ve been in Hawaiʻi long enough, you’ve caught an episode of the popular television show, Outside Hawaiʻi. Delivered straight to your living rooms for over 20 years by host Jen Boneza and the familiar sound of that oh-so-catchy ukulele picking ditty, it remains local cable channel OC16’s highest rated program. Each segment reaches an average of 55,000 […]
E Alu Pu Turns 20: From a Meeting to a Movement
Twenty years ago, I was mired in graduate school at UH Mānoa, trying to figure out a whole lot more in life than just what I’d write for my MA thesis. As luck would have it, I’d stumbled into an internship with The Nature Conservancy’s (then) brand new Marine Program. With TNC, I began supporting the Miloliʻi community—learning […]