Internships ↓

Each summer, Hawaiʻi Appleseed hosts three to six undergraduate, graduate, or law students to conduct research on policy matters or investigate potential impact litigation relating to issues affecting low-income residents of Hawaiʻi. Students are typically given a single project to focus on during a 10-week internship at Hawaiʻi Appleseed.

By the end of the summer, students will usually have developed an extensive memo detailing their findings and making recommendations on potential reforms and how they might best be pursued. Often, this work will inform Hawaiʻi Appleseed’s future policy advocacy.

Students are given a high degree of responsibility and Appleseed staff rely heavily on the students’ work to develop new projects. For example, in one summer, students at Hawaiʻi Appleseed were responsible for researching:

1. Solutions for Hawaiʻi’s affordable housing crisis;
2. Inequities in Hawaiʻi’s tax system;
3. Language accessibility of the Hawaiʻi driver’s examination; and
4. Issues in Hawaiʻi’s foster care system.

Each of these projects resulted in meaningful improvements to systems affecting people in poverty in Hawai‘i.

• The student working on the affordable housing crisis research developed a policy brief describing how jurisdictions across the country were using Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to create more affordable housing without the use of scarce government subsidies. The brief was shared with the Honolulu City Council and ultimately resulted in the passage of a bill allowing ADU development. (ADUs are separate units built on a homeowner’s property that are often rented at rates below what is typically available on the rental market.)

• The students working on the tax system project developed a policy brief that identified ways that Hawaiʻi can improve its regressive tax system, which taxes people in poverty at the second highest rate in the nation. Their work laid the foundation for passage of a state Earned Income Tax Credit that is providing $135 million in tax relief to low-income families over a period of five years.

• The student conducting the driver’s license examination work built a case that resulted in a settlement which required the state of Hawaiʻi to reinstitute the use of translated driver’s exams so that limited English proficient speakers could obtain a license that would allow them to get to work and care for their families. The translated exams had previously been discontinued when a single question on the exam changed and the state refused to get the question translated.

• The student examining the state’s foster care system uncovered a long-standing issue of the state failing to adjust for inflation the amount foster families were provided for the care of foster children. The student’s work resulted in a class action settlement that increased the resources provided for the care of foster children by $8 million per year.

To apply, please submit a resume, cover letter, and writing sample to Executive Director Gavin Thornton at jobs@hiappleseed.org.