For my high school internship, I joined the Maui Heroes Project. The Maui Heroes Project is an eight-week program in which kids commit to joining a group of other students on adventures around Maui twice a week. This program is designed to teach kids like me life skills to help us become better leaders in the future. From the Maui Heroes Project, I learned how to help myself and others in a variety of disastrous situations ranging from tsunamis to floods and the medical emergencies that may follow. My peers and I practiced drills like river rescues and crossings, search and rescue, medical triaging, CPR, property damage assessment, shooting drills, and more. Through these drills and talking to professionals such as real firefighters and medics, I got a taste of what it would be like working on the front lines, risking my life to help others.
My number one takeaway from graduating from the Maui Heroes Project is that my life is a story in which I can choose to be the hero or the villain. The program taught me how to handle not only physical disasters but emotional disasters. I received guidance so that when faced with emotional disasters, I have the tools I need to keep portraying the hero.
The Maui Heroes Project helped me use and improve three twenty-first century skills: interpersonal skills, communication skills, and civic literacy and engagement. Firstly, interpersonal skills require one to work effectively with a variety of teams. My team and I were strangers to each other when we started the program, and by the end, we were working together as friends to complete all the challenges thrown our way successfully. Communication skills were an important part of group bonding and working in the field as a rescue team. Not only was it essential that we effectively communicate with each other, but also with the people we were training to help. Learning how to talk to disaster victims effectively ensures they get the help they need and eventually make it to safety. Finally, civic literacy skills are all about participating in your community and helping shape the daily lives of others. As a graduated member of the Maui Heroes Project, if a disaster were to hit our island, I would be called out to help restore the community to what it once was with the help of the skills I learned in the program.
My goals going into this internship were to be open-minded and learn useful life skills. After graduating, I can confidently say I more than accomplished these goals. Being part of a wonderful team of people with the same goals I had was a valuable experience. I got to partake in an eight-week journey of self-discovery with people I would come to consider good friends. As a group, we faced many challenges: Tiring hikes, exhausting swims in freezing water, traveling through pitch-black caves, and more. However, the most difficult thing I faced with my team was emotional vulnerability. To discover our inner hero, we had to divulge all our "villain moments" and learn to move on from them, and that is a task we took on together.
This experience has helped prepare me for life after high school in many ways. For starters, it has taught me how to interact and get close with a variety of people. It has taught me how to make meaningful connections and lasting friendships. Throughout the program, I learned how to put myself out there and be the one who speaks up first and not worry so much about what could go wrong but start thinking about what could go right. I've also learned not to fear the unknown. This program has taught me that I am more capable than I initially believed. I realized that I am a good problem solver and a critical thinker. Many of my teammates told me this is why they came to me for advice.
Overall, the Maui Heroes Project taught me many valuable life lessons. I learned how to deal with life's challenges without getting discouraged. I learned that I can do almost anything I set my mind to. I'm thankful that I had an opportunity as amazing as this one, and I plan to use the skills I learned from my internship for the rest of my life.
My number one takeaway from graduating from the Maui Heroes Project is that my life is a story in which I can choose to be the hero or the villain. The program taught me how to handle not only physical disasters but emotional disasters. I received guidance so that when faced with emotional disasters, I have the tools I need to keep portraying the hero.
The Maui Heroes Project helped me use and improve three twenty-first century skills: interpersonal skills, communication skills, and civic literacy and engagement. Firstly, interpersonal skills require one to work effectively with a variety of teams. My team and I were strangers to each other when we started the program, and by the end, we were working together as friends to complete all the challenges thrown our way successfully. Communication skills were an important part of group bonding and working in the field as a rescue team. Not only was it essential that we effectively communicate with each other, but also with the people we were training to help. Learning how to talk to disaster victims effectively ensures they get the help they need and eventually make it to safety. Finally, civic literacy skills are all about participating in your community and helping shape the daily lives of others. As a graduated member of the Maui Heroes Project, if a disaster were to hit our island, I would be called out to help restore the community to what it once was with the help of the skills I learned in the program.
My goals going into this internship were to be open-minded and learn useful life skills. After graduating, I can confidently say I more than accomplished these goals. Being part of a wonderful team of people with the same goals I had was a valuable experience. I got to partake in an eight-week journey of self-discovery with people I would come to consider good friends. As a group, we faced many challenges: Tiring hikes, exhausting swims in freezing water, traveling through pitch-black caves, and more. However, the most difficult thing I faced with my team was emotional vulnerability. To discover our inner hero, we had to divulge all our "villain moments" and learn to move on from them, and that is a task we took on together.
This experience has helped prepare me for life after high school in many ways. For starters, it has taught me how to interact and get close with a variety of people. It has taught me how to make meaningful connections and lasting friendships. Throughout the program, I learned how to put myself out there and be the one who speaks up first and not worry so much about what could go wrong but start thinking about what could go right. I've also learned not to fear the unknown. This program has taught me that I am more capable than I initially believed. I realized that I am a good problem solver and a critical thinker. Many of my teammates told me this is why they came to me for advice.
Overall, the Maui Heroes Project taught me many valuable life lessons. I learned how to deal with life's challenges without getting discouraged. I learned that I can do almost anything I set my mind to. I'm thankful that I had an opportunity as amazing as this one, and I plan to use the skills I learned from my internship for the rest of my life.