ʻŌHIʻA PALS

ʻŌhiʻa PALS: PACE Agribusiness Leaders

Growing Hawaiʻi’s next generation of agribusiness entrepreneurs — rooted in resilience, built for adaptability.

Program Overview

Named for one of Hawaiʻi’s most resilient native plants, ʻŌhiʻa PALS (PACE Agribusiness Leaders) is a pilot program built at the intersection of entrepreneurship and agriculture — a collaboration between the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE) at the Shidler College of Business and the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

The ʻōhiʻa lehua is often the very first plant to take root on new lava flows — thriving in conditions where little else can grow, and slowly transforming barren rock into fertile ground for a whole forest ecosystem to follow. That same resilience and adaptability sits at the heart of entrepreneurship, and it’s the spirit ʻŌhiʻa PALS is built to cultivate in its students.

Through ʻŌhiʻa PALS, students gain hands-on exposure to agribusiness — from the fundamentals of building a venture to the realities of Hawaiʻi’s food and agriculture economy — guided by mentorship from both PACE’s entrepreneurship expertise and CTAHR’s agricultural knowledge. Just as the ʻōhiʻa doesn’t grow alone, but creates the conditions for an entire forest to flourish, ʻŌhiʻa PALS aims to grow a community of agribusiness leaders who will go on to strengthen Hawaiʻi’s local food systems and economy.