Since 2015, Maunakea Scholars is an innovative program designed to bring Hawai‘i’s aspiring young astronomers into the observatory community, competitively allocating observing time on world-class telescopes to local students. This is the first program of its kind internationally, leveraging the most powerful collection of telescopes in the world for the direct educational advancement of Hawai‘i’s high school students. The program is a collaboration between the University of Hawai‘i Institute for Astronomy, Maunakea Observatories, and the Hawai‘i Department of Education.
Over the course of the Maunakea Scholars program, over 1,000 students participated in the program. While students are not directly tracked post high school graduation, we have continued to work with several students as they move into their post graduate careers. The first Maunakea Scholars participant who majored in astronomy graduated from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa in May 2023. At least three other Maunakea Scholars students are currently pursuing their degrees in astronomy or physics. Five Maunakea Scholars alumni participated in the Akamai internship program in the summer of 2023. One student was recently published as a co-author on a professional astronomy paper based on her work studying the Horsehead Nebula.
