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Students creating a sunscreen testing strips with rubbing alcohol, iron tablets, hydrogen peroxide and coffee filters
Fifteen high school students from a STEM-focused girls’ school in Tokyo traveled to Hawaiʻi not just to learn—but to help tackle some of the islands’ toughest social and environmental issues, from reef-safe sunscreen to houselessness.
Toshimagaoka School students conducting interviews
In July 2025, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE) collaborated with Very50, a Japan-based social enterprise accelerator, to bring the group of students from Toshimagaoka Girls’ School to Oʻahu. The partnership provided a cross-cultural and problem-solving learning experience for both the students from Japan, as well as students from UH.
The week-long, rigorous PACE X Very50 collaboration encouraged students to use STEM skills to solve social and climate issues in Hawaiʻi. Three student teams tackled:
Testing strips that indicate if sunscreens brought into Hawaiʻi are reef-safe
A card game to encourage players to create personas to reduce prejudice around houseless individuals
An app for individuals, such as hikers, who are interested in native and endemic species
To develop their solutions, students interviewed residents and tourists in English to gather information and insights. After her second field day of conducting interviews, Miu Nagase said, “We were able to interview many people on topics such as homelessness and interesting things about the cultures of those we met. I noticed my growth in opening up to talking to people.”
A UH experience
Professor Camille Pagniello talking about her research and the Marine Innovation Lab for Leading-edge Oceanography.
While on campus, the visiting students worked on their projects at the Walter Dods Jr., RISE Center’s coworking and maker spaces, and were treated to a visit and demonstration of marine bioacoustic equipment at School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology Professor Camille Pagniello’s Marine Innovation Lab for Leading-edge Oceanography.
UH students (Kai Higuchi, art; Timothy Lum, computer science; Landon Momohara, marketing; Kensho Munakata, economics; Kaitlyn Tokunaga, accounting/management information systems and Japanese) assisted by identifying and pointing the students to people and places to conduct interviews; and guiding the teams through prototyping tangible representations of their solutions. On the final day, students presented their projects with demonstrations of their proposed solutions to PACE Executive Director Sandra Fujiyama.
Toshimagaoka students and Very50 mentors
“This collaboration helped students develop an innovative problem-solving mindset,” Fujiyama said. “They brought fresh perspectives to Hawaiʻi’s challenges, and their impressive projects offer tangible steps toward meaningful local impact.”
Ryoh Sugitani from Very50 added, “The project turned out great and I am thankful to the Toshimagaoka and UH students who participated in this project! Very50 is looking forward to working with UH again in the future.”
AloJapan.com