By Ireland Castillo

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Advocating the rights of the people, promoting equality and shaping Hawaiiís future is no usual agenda for the typical teen, yet for Alumna Lisa Grandinetti and Senior Roanne Domingo, this task was achievable after their summer internship with AiKea.

“As an intern we did a lot of organization, organizing work so our interns are called the OBB program, which is Organizing Beyond Barriers, and what we do is we organize people in the community,” explained Domingo.

The AiKea movement was founded on May 19, 2012 based on the decisions of the Local 5 Hotel Workers Union and Kaiser Permamente. AiKeaís goal is to advocate the idea of shaping Hawaiiís future through the support and efforts of the people. “Essentially (it’s) kind of a coalition of different citizen groups, so labor organizations and social justice organizations and environmental organizations, women’s rights organizations, those kind of people that are democratizing the process,” explained Social Studies teacher Amy Perruso.

This summer, the enrolled interns were given the responsibility of organizing events throughout the community that featured AiKea’s goals. Domingo had the opportunity of participating in a rally against condo conversions. “We rallied in front of the Ilikai hotel, it’s at Waikiki and itís for condo conversions, (yet) we are not,” stated Domingo, “(The reason is) if a regular hotel is converted into a condo we lose a lot of our workers.î The rally was supported by 700 to 800 people who were led by three main (speakers), one of them including Domingo. “I led the chants because we did chants to empower and to have solidarity in the people that came,” she said.

On the other hand, some interns had the opportunity to plan and participate in a centered meeting revolved around ìPeople Power.î ìOn the third of July, AiKea community members and Local 5 committee members joined together in a massive meeting at the Blaisdell Center,î said Grandinetti, ìThe purpose of (the) meeting as a whole was to discuss with members of the community the significance of people power, why we need it, and how we build it.î

However, during the span of the summer, interns participated by performing in a guerrilla theater enacting condo conversions, delegating a Human Resources Manager due to slack work ethic and organizing more meetings within the Union.

Besides the rallying, the performances and the meetings all AiKea interns shared the responsibility of managing and planning the AiKea Teach-In. “The AiKea Teach-In was an untraditional panel discussion with community leaders and members. It is a technique that has been used to educate the community,” explained Grandinetti. Through the Teach-In the community is made aware of issues that Hawaii is confronting on both fronts. “We wanted them to get together (to) talk about who has the power in the community and how we can shift that like, you know, from the power of the corporations (to the people),” said Domingo.

Through the internship, Grandinetti and Domingo have come to recognize the importance of working for the community for a better future. “AiKea benefits Hawaii and its people, by giving us a way to voice our opinions, hold politicians accountable and change the way that the system is pitted against us by the one percent,” stated Grandinetti.

Currently, both Perruso and Domingo look forward to establishing an AiKea club to encourage more students to take part in the shaping of Hawaiiís future.