Cady's first college guidance counselor dissuaded her from applying to top colleges. With personal determination and support from mentors, she ended up graduating with a BA and MA from Stanford University. Now as a Bay Area Assistant Principal and a Board Member of SPIO, she recognizes the importance of early mentorship and is working with a small volunteer team to build a free e-mentorship program for Pacific Islander students preparing for college and career success.

Ikani Samani believes young Pacific Islanders have limitless career potential. After growing up in poverty and briefly pursuing a college football scholarship, Ikani decided to break the Polynesian athlete stereotype and pursue a career in software engineering. After graduating from Utah Valley University with a B.S. in Computer Software Engineering, he worked for 5 years as a successful software engineer. He is now pursuing his MBA at BYU while working full-time at WeWork. He hopes to mentor young Pacific Islanders interested in tech and empower students to find a skill that will make them valuable to their community.

Bay Area Filipino-Polynesian native, Keani Hin, shares her journey on becoming a Google sourcer. As the second oldest child in a family of 6 siblings, Keani held many family responsibilities early on, which helped set a strong foundation for her college and career success. With a passion for health and fitness she majored in Kinesiology, but changed courses out of college and is now working for one of the top tech companies in the world. Keani trusted in her path, and she’s found a genuinely caring and helpful community at Google. Her next personal goal: creating a podcast with her best friend.

After growing up in New South Wales and graduating from BYU with a degree in Finance, Aidan Reiri now works as a Business Analyst for one of the top management consulting firms in the world , McKinsey & Company. Aware of the lack of Pacific Islander presence in business settings, Aidan aims to mentor young Pacific Islanders interested in business and establish a space for Pacific Islanders within his company. He hopes to see more students branching out into different fields of study and pursuing leadership positions.

Emily Sataua Lautoa talks about culture shock in college, sexism in the engineering industry and the importance of pursuing higher education. While she currently works as a mechanical engineer, she one day hopes to give back to her community by providing engineering resources to students in her hometown of Pago Pago.

Esiteli Hafoka talks about her untraditional journey through higher education, her PhD work on Tongan-American religiosity and the importance of increasing Pacific Islander representation in academia.