Kukuiokalani Ulii

Hello! My name is Kukui and I am Hawaiian and I grew up in the Seattle area. As a native Hawaiian, I am drawn to studying the stars; my ancestors used the stars to navigate across thousands of miles of open ocean. My name, Kukuiokalani, means ‘light from heaven’ and I find it is fitting to my passion. When I was six, I learned that my next door neighbor was building a telescope in her backyard. I was so excited about it that I saved up money to buy a build-your-own telescope kit. That summer, my mom and I took my telescope to the top of Table Mountain. I was only two hundred miles from home, yet I was staring at Jupiter more than four hundred million miles away! This is where my fascination with space was born. I am in love with all things physics, math, and astronomy, and when I am not in class I like to paint, ride my bike, and spend time with my friends. My dream is to study and research astrophysics and to represent Hawaiians in science where, just like my ancestors, I can study the stars.