About eight years ago, Native Hawaiian Student Services (NHSS) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa restarted the Hawaiian Youths Abroad (HYA) program.
The program dates back to King Kalākaua’s reign, when the king, with the support of the Hawaiian Kingdom Legislature, supported sending 18 Hawaiian youth to travel abroad between 1880 and 1892.
The Hawaiian Youths Abroad program sent young Hawaiians to Italy, Scotland, England, China, Japan, and the United States.
Personally selected by Kalākaua himself, these young people were to become the future leaders of the Hawaiian Kingdom and were sent out to study engineering, medicine, art, music, military science, and foreign languages. They would acquire foreign knowledge and bring those skills back to serve their country.
The recently revived Hawaiian Youths Abroad program started by taking students to Paris and London in 2018. Then in 2019, students traveled to London, Tursin and Naples. In 2024 program participants traveled to French Polynesia, and to Japan in 2025.
This summer, they traveled to Keomolewa through Kapalakiko (from Vancouver, Canada, to San Francisco, California) for 10 days to retrace the 19th century connections between the Hawaiian Kingdom and the Pacific Northwest.
With two tuition-free courses (six credits), students learned about labor settlements, Hawaiian diplomacy and education, and engagement with the 19th-century world. The travel itinerary included visiting locations such as Vancouver (City), Salt Spring Island, and Victoria Island in Canada; Seattle, Tacoma, Kalama, and Fort Vancouver in Washington State; and San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz in California.
The focus of Hawaiian Youths Abroad has been retracing the path of our aliʻi, diplomats, and citizens to engage students in different educational experiences and training around the world.
Priority considerations for student participation include undergraduate UH Mānoa students who have at least one or more semester remaining; and past or current NHSS students who have participated in prior programs, show promise for advancing in leadership, are interested in advanced graduate studies and research engagement at UH Mānoa, and who have a demonstrated record of interest and engagement in Hawaiian education and research.
 at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa restarted the Hawaiian Youths Abroad (HYA) program.){kind=link}