Episode 3:

MEDB Stemworks

Case sTUDY

Maui Economic Development Board’s stemworks program shows scaling paid pathways is not only an operational question, it’s about ecosystem design.

The Workforce Understory sat with Katie Taladay of Maui Economic Development Board to talk about what’s working for STEMworks. She shared that a regional ecosystem requires…

Early exposure

Place-based coordination

Sector alignment

Education partnerships

Employer trust

MEDB’s STEMworks Innovation Internships are 7-week, paid opportunities for students to apply their STEM skills in real industry settings. Operating statewide, the program connects students and employers across multiple counties and aligns placements with priority sectors such as healthcare, space, cybersecurity, marine science, and aquaculture. STEMworks is structured not only as workforce development, but as part of a broader economic strategy, designing projects that add value to host companies while cultivating local STEM talent.

Career awareness in this model begins before placement. Students encounter regional industries through multiple touchpoints, including earlier STEM programs and sector exposure. More than half of the 2025 cohort were high school students, reflecting an intentional effort to build aspiration early.

Employer participation grows through alignment. When interns contribute to revenue-generating projects, as seen in Maui’s space startup ecosystem where intern-supported companies created 20 new jobs across 17 firms, companies return. Trust accumulates through repeat engagement.

Geography shapes how the model operates. Headquartered on Maui, STEMworks places interns statewide, with participation from every county. Internship growth depends on aligning with industry strengths across regions while maintaining coordinated employer engagement and shared infrastructure.

Longtidunal pipeline thinking: exposure builds aspiration

STEMworks does not position internships as a starting point. It situations them within the broader education to career talent development arc. Many interns enter the Innovation Internship program after earlier STEMworks engagement which could begin as early as kindergarten. The STEMworks education program operates in 52 K-12 HIDOE schools across the state and provides classrooms with STEM curricula, teacher professional development training, STEM activity and tech supplies, after school programming and career awareness events in partnership with industry. These multiple and multi-faceted touchpoints build relationships with students and familiarity with regional industry partners long before formal internship placements begin.

Statewide internships are intentionally aligned with sectors identified as strategic for Hawaiʻi’s economy, including healthcare, space, cybersecurity, marine science, and aquaculture. This alignment reflects a deliberate synergy between workforce preparation and business development.

More than half of the 2025 cohort were high school students. If a host employer accepts a college intern, they must also host a high school intern. This policy expands early exposure and strengthens the pipeline before students leave the island for postsecondary education.

The 7-week internship experience combines project-based work with weekly professional development. Survey data from 2025 show measurable growth in durable skills:

84% reported improved communication skills
75% reported improved adaptability
74% reported improved teamwork
63% reported improved ability to stay focused

For 10% to 20% of participants, the internship leads directly to employment. For many others, particularly those still in school, the experience clarifies next steps.

Internships, in this model, are a midpoint in a longer progression.

1. Exposure builds awareness.

2. Skill-building builds confidence.

3. Placement builds experience.

4. Connection sustains momentum.

Without upstream preparation and sector alignment, placement growth becomes inconsistent.

With longitudinal design, it becomes cumulative.

Trust takes time

Employer participation in STEMworks is not transactional. It develops through sustained sector engagement.

STEMworks operates within MEDB’s broader innovation ecosystem, including its Space business assistance program: MEDB BusinessSPACE and other industry initiatives. Employers are not approached solely as internship hosts. They are also engaged as partners within a regional strategy that links business development and workforce development. One benefit a company has as an MEDB BusinessSPACE participant is that they will be given access to up to five paid STEMworks Innovation Interns at no cost to the company. MEDB as a non-profit, covers intern stipends through grants and fund development.

Participation grows through:

Years-long engagement with industry leaders
Alignment between pathway design and sector needs
Visible student preparation upstream
Early adopters signaling credibility to peers
Repeat participation that deepens trust

In the space startup ecosystem, interns contributed to revenue-generating projects that supported the development of 20 new jobs across 17 companies last year alone. Seeing tangible impact, companies are motivated to return to host additional interns.

Employers participate because they see alignment with regional economic priorities. They join a network where workforce development supports sector expansion.

Trust is cumulative.

Early adopters reduce perceived risk for others. As companies experience value and return, ecosystem credibility strengthens. Participation expands not through mandate, but through demonstrated alignment and shared strategy.

Workforce participation grows when industry strategy and talent development move together.

Place-Based Design in a Statewide System

Statewide infrastructure is stronger when shaped from multiple regional vantage points.

Scaling paid pathways statewide does not mean designing from a single geographic center. Hawaiʻi’s workforce system spans multiple islands with distinct employer bases, sector concentrations, and funding dynamics. Programs shaped from neighbor island contexts bring necessary strategic insights into statewide design.

STEMworks operates as a statewide internship model grounded in industry alignment. Its placements connect students to priority sectors including healthcare, space, cybersecurity, marine science, and aquaculture, with participation from employers and students across multiple counties. Rather than being designed from a single centralized vantage point, the program reflects distributed ecosystem leadership — demonstrating how statewide coordination can be informed by diverse regional industry dynamics.

In this context, internships are intertwined with regional economic strategy, and funding shapes scale. STEMworks scaled from 20 interns in 2020 to 110 last summer. Yet the team reports they could have placed nearly 200 interns in 2025 if funding had been available. Placements are grant-driven and supported through a braided funding strategy utilizing federal, state, county, and private dollars. Short grant cycles limit long-term planning and longitudinal tracking.

Geography also shapes modality. When the pandemic halted many programs statewide, STEMworks pivoted to fully remote internships. Today, approximately 30% of placements remain remote, particularly in cybersecurity and data science. Remote placements expand access across islands, but require additional coaching. Parents and teachers may question their value. Students must develop remote employability skills such as proactive communication and time management.

Data and storytelling: Proving ecosystem impact

STEMworks tracks participation and near-term outcomes with intention.

Participation

Annual internship placements, scaled from 20 interns in 2020 to 110 in 2025
Representation from every county statewide
Proportion of high school versus college interns
Sector distribution across healthcare, space, cybersecurity, marine science, and other fields

Employer engagement

Repeat host participation across multiple cohorts
Expansion from single-intern placements to multiple interns in some firms
Documented examples of business value, including startup revenue growth and job creation

Student outcomes

Post-internship survey data measuring changes in skill development and career interest
Durable skill growth, including communication (84%), adaptability (75%), and teamwork (74%)
Direct employment outcomes, with 10% to 20% of interns hired by their host company

Alumni pathways

Continued contact attempts through surveys and outreach
Informal tracking of students who move into employment or further STEM study

These data points demonstrate ecosystem vitality: participation is increasing; employers are returning; and students report meaningful skill gains. At the same time, longitudinal visibility remains limited.

Most interns are still in school at the time of participation. Grant periods are typically not long enough to support multi-year tracking. Students often use temporary school email addresses, making follow-up difficult. While immediate employment outcomes are captured, longer-term wage progression, sector retention, and multi-year career mobility are not consistently tracked. Data systems remain fragmented across funding streams and regions.

Ecosystems mature through narrative and data. Participation growth and employer return rates signal ecosystem strength. But without shared longitudinal metrics across regions, it remains difficult to assess how these regional gains accumulate statewide.

The Takeaway: Scaling paid pathways isn’t only about operations, it’s about ecosystems.

Internships do not stand alone. They sit within a regional network of industry partners, educators, funders, and intermediaries. Career awareness must begin early and sector alignment must be intentional. Employer trust must be cultivated through repeated engagement and visible value.

In this model, internship growth depends on aligning placements with emerging industries, supporting startups and established firms, expanding early exposure, and adapting to geographic realities such as remote work and employer density. This work unfolds over years: trust accumulates, participation stabilizes, and ecosystems mature.

Universal access cannot be achieved through centralized expansion alone. It must be built through regional architectures capable of sustaining participation within their own economic structure.

roots to canopy:
Explore Episode 3

Episode 3: Paid Pathways as Infrastructure
Learn about the paid internship and first job landscape through case studies and employer perspectives.

Episode 3 Introduction

Healthcare Association of Hawaiʻi Case Study
HAH High School Healthcare Certification Program demonstrates the importance of funding and capacity for placement onboarding and coordination, employer coaching, internship supervision, and tracking outcomes.

HAH Case Study

Employer Perspectives: Costs and Benefits
Hawaiʻi Employers Council shares the misconceptions employers have around what internships, as well as the key building blocks for a quality internship and what employers stand to gain by investing in young people.