Cohort 1
Eye-opening. Meaningful. Inspiring. Diverse. Rewarding. Unforgettable.
These are some of the words that cohort fellows used to describe their Movers and Shakas experience.
We completed our inaugural journey with our first cohort of Movers and Shakas, co-creating the program together while navigating COVID uncertainty. Selected from nearly 90,000 applicants, our 50 cohort fellows came from around the country to continue their full-time remote jobs while building personal relationships, contributing their professional skills to local nonprofits, learning about Hawaii’s unique culture and getting dirty in group work days around Oahu. We’re incredibly grateful for our sponsors for helping to create a new program for a more sustainable and resilient Hawaiʻi.
Cohort 1 Volunteer Partner Organizations
Local Non-Profit Partners
Startup / Accelerator Partners
Past Project Highlights
Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association and Native Hawaiian Chambers of Commerce:
Created a statewide online Native Hawaiian business directory.
PAʻI Foundation:
Supported an artist accelerator program while helping with website development and a CRM system.
The Pantry by Feeding Hawaii Together:
Helping with CRM, marketing, and partnership development to help expand.
Chamber of Commerce Hawaii and the Hawaii State Department of Education:
Collaboration on the Hanai-A-Classroom program where our fellows mentored local high school students.
Work Now Hawaii:
Assisted with creating employment opportunities for diverse communities and underserved populations.
Girls Scouts of Hawaii:
Developed a virtual badging program and assisted with a capital campaign for the recently constructed STEM Center for Excellence.
Ongoing Contributions to Hawaii
,A lot of the “magic” happens after the cohort program has facilitated deep professional and personal relationships:
DBEDT / Nexrep collaboration: hundreds of remote jobs for Hawaii residents expected to be created by end of 2021
From Pacific Business News (9/17/21):
For NexRep CEO Teddy Liaw, the goal has always been to make remote work distant, but not foreign.
Liaw, a fellow of the original cohort of Movers and Shakas, was one of the driving forces behind a pilot state government hiring initiative, the Hawaii Remote Work Project, that aims to set up people in the Islands with work-from-home call center jobs within the U.S.
The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, and the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations are working in conjunction on the site. NexRep is one of a few national business partners with the project.
Exelon remote internships for Waipahu High students: paid summer internships with a Washington, D.C.-based cybersecurity company
From Civil Beat (6/24/21):
Movers & Shakas, which has brought dozens of digital nomads to work in the islands, asks members to give back to the community by volunteering in a service-oriented project, including mentoring students.
Charles Salas, a Washington, D.C.-based security engineering manager at Exelon Corp., who came to Hawaii as part of the initiative in mid-February, called it a “win-win” for his company after he was able to convert his mentorship of students at Waipahu High into the creation of paid virtual internships for two of them.
Testimonials
“Movers & Shakas volunteers came with the right attitude – they came with humility, respect and a willingness to learn. We shared our culture and they shared their talents by helping us with our website and CRM database. They are also looking at ways we can create our own accelerator for artists and cultural practitioners.”
— Aunty Vicky Holt Takamine, PAʻI Foundation
“Dante was actually the missing piece of the puzzle to build an online directory for Native Hawaiian-owned businesses. His skillset has been a perfect placement with us. We love that he himself is an entrepreneur, runs his own minority-owned business and shared the opportunities and challenges of Black-owned organizations. Dante operates from the same shared set of values that our team believes in. He helped us think on a much grander scale while bringing so much life into our dream for this directory!”
— Malia Sanders, Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (& Native Hawaiian Chambers of Commerce)
“I loved seeing volunteers working with their partner schools and teachers. All volunteers want to continue the partnerships…and act as a volunteer industry partner in the future. They are the sustainable and committed partners we need in schools. Professional Development guest speaker webinars begin this week and I am so excited to watch the magic happen.”
— Lord Ryan Lizardo, Chamber of Commerce Hawaii
“It was phenomenal to connect with a Punahou alum and share about how we might be able to leverage common connections to help expand and grow our efforts. Paige has gone above and beyond on supporting The Pantry, helping us not only with marketing support, but helping us think through our first impact report, fundraising, and coordinating and executing all of it.”
— Jennine Sullivan, The Pantry by Feeding Hawaii Together
“Nichole will be running an in-person engineering badge program for our girls K-12. We’ve been doing primarily 100% of our programs virtual and just made the decision to start doing in-person programs in small groups. We’re so lucky that we have Nichole to help us bring an awesome program and speaker to our first in-person program in over a year!”
— Kim Morris, Girl Scouts of Hawaii
“Roger brought decades of knowledge and experience with him as he volunteered at RendezView. As a small startup, it was great to be able to access a leader and innovator of his caliber and get hands on help with our strategy and development. ”
— Stefan Opsal, RendezView
A Look Into Cohort 1
Tour of the Girl Scouts Hawaii new STEM Center in Paumalu.
