The Journey
One island, one city, two study-abroad chapters, and a loop back home. Scroll to travel; click a stop to jump.
Stop 01 · Honolulu
~2022
I grew up on Oahu, where community isn't a value statement; it's how things get done. Punahou basketball and a varsity co-captain year, a 199-hour Eagle project rebuilding a library, and a first job as a sales associate helping military families at the Navy Exchange.
Stop 02 · Seattle
2022
Seattle University: Business Analytics and Marketing by day, refereeing flag football by night. I started as an intramural official and left running the program; along the way I co-founded a student credit union initiative that won $22.5K across two business plan competitions.
Stop 03 · 東京 · Tokyo
2024
A semester at 上智大学 (Sophia University): Japanese language, Anthropology of Japan, and a Philosophy of AI course a full year before AI became my job. Being the person who doesn't fully speak the language teaches you to listen harder than any classroom does.
Stop 04 · Honolulu
Summer 2025
Back to the islands as one of Bank of Hawaii's first AI interns: 50+ use cases gathered across the organization, a scoring framework, a Power BI dashboard, and a readout to 60+ employees and senior leaders. The journey loops home before its last leg.
Seattle U · Experience By Doing → The LinkedIn post → BOH 2025 employee report →
Stop 05 · Italy
August 2025
I have always wanted to go to Europe, so when this opportunity came along, I could not pass it up. Italy felt completely new compared with anything I had experienced before. I went in not knowing anyone, but I left making lifelong friends. The class brought together MBA students and younger undergrads. As a senior, I was somewhere in the middle: asking people who had already built careers for advice, while sharing some of what I had learned with students just starting out. At the family-run places, the care was impossible to miss. You could feel the pride, history, and personal care behind the product. Seeing that level of craft alongside companies operating at global scale made all the preparation work from spring and summer feel real.
Stop 06 · What's next?
2026
Graduated and keeping busy: learning, doing self-learning projects, freelance, and real estate. I am studying for my JLPT N3, getting in touch with my roots and trying to verify my years of study.
