Fellows mentioned in this story:
John Leong
Yunji de Nies

From Hawai‘i News Now:

As the CEO of Pono Pacific and Kupu, John Leong has spent his career protecting Hawaiʻi’s natural resources and empowering the next generation to care for them. His work is about transformation and connection — building hope in places once left behind and creating opportunity for young people once counted out.

Leong grew up working in his family’s restaurant, the Wailana. “My grandfather started it, and I saw how he was using his business to build a community,” he recalls. “That’s one of the things that was inspiring to me.”

That sense of responsibility — to people and place — became his compass. “I was in the Youth Conservation Corps under the Department of Land and Natural Resources,” he explains. “It gave me a much wider view of what Hawaiʻi’s resources are and realizing how fragile our ecosystems were. It just kind of started to put a calling in my heart that someone’s got to do something about protecting the long-term health of our lands and our community.”

Watch at hawaiinewsnow.com.