[intro music] HIKI NŌ, Hawai‘i's New Wave of Storytellers.

NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i.

My name is Hannah Kirby, and I'm a senior at Kalāheo High School on O‘ahu.

Mahalo for joining us to watch the work of Hawai‘i's New Wave of Storytellers.

This episode, we're diving into Hawai‘i's incredible annual youth media conference, SHOOTS Summit Hawai‘i, which just celebrated its fourth year with the theme “Fo’Reals.” PBS Hawai‘i's professional mentors and staff are among the many volunteers who led educational workshops on journalism, video production, and storytelling at the conference.

Students from the elementary to high school grade level all participated in the three-day event, which includes both contests and breakout sessions.

This statewide school media competition and conference is organized by Hawai‘i Creative Media, a nonprofit that was founded by local media teachers.

Students and teachers from across the state as well as Texas, entered about two dozen contests, covering everything from feature stories to vlogs.

Let's hear more from the summit organizers and participants about what makes the SHOOTS Summit so special.

Are you ready?

[cheers and applause] Three, two, one.

[more cheers and applause] Welcome to the SHOOTS Summit 2026. continue] I'm excited to be here at the SHOOTS Summit, where your ideas, your voices and stories take center stage.

I wish I had something like this when I was little.

I would have been into every sort of aspect of it.

Aloha.

I will say, just being here today, no matter what happens with the competition, you guys won.

how do you feel those people around you and those who supported your journey affected your career and the way you pursued your passion?

I don't think I wouldn't be here otherwise.

Kaua‘i is always my home.

Hawai‘i is my home grounds.

I come home so that I can feel comfortable and come back to myself.

And it keeps me grounded.

It keeps me understanding why I do what I do.

The first two days are what we call our competition and breakout session days.

We have over 20 contests that we offer.

My name Keith Nakamura, and we're here at - So, we are working on our feature story.

We're looking for places right now.

Oh, we're working on the summit weather report.

Our topic is superpowers.

so that, you know, students like yourselves can have this opportunity.

Yes, like that.

Our conference is not just about competitions.

We really value the education that comes with going to the sessions.

So, they go to all the breakout sessions that we have, and we have a ton of different people from the industry that have dedicated their time to share their knowledge with our students.

You have the best story in the world, but nobody watches it, right?

Who cares?

what we're gonna do today, like it says, is on camera performance.

Maybe we can pass these around too, so everybody gets to actually hear what it sounds like.

The most funnest thing, I think, is connecting with other schools, like with breakout sessions I learn a lot, but I also meet a lot of new people from different schools and off-island too, not just from O‘ahu.

And I feel like that's just great, because in life, you need a lot of connections to get somewhere.

And I just think this is just such a fun experience.

The fact that we have people coming here and participating in an event like this, learning project management skills, learning how to work on a team, learning problem solving skills, like that is workforce development.

We're preparing this rising generation for what kind of the real-world work life is like.

all four years now.

I still get the heebie-jeebies and all of that.

And even when we submit, this clapping when someone submits is very brand new.

We get better by each year, going from good to great.

And I love being a part of SHOOTS Summit.

SHOOTS Summit, can I get a chee hu?

What's up, everybody?

How you guys doing?

We bring everybody together on the third day, and that's our closing ceremonies, and we just announce all the winners.

In second place for our middle school division goes to Lahaina Intermediate School.

Bring the kids up on stage, show the winning video, celebrate their work.

And yeah, it's an exciting morning.

first place goes to Maui Waena Intermediate School.

Make your way back to the front please.

Elementary School.

[cheers] There's more to life than just winning.

You know, got to educate yourself.

You got to also come in with the right attitude, and, you know, to want to learn and to want to grow and to want to connect with other schools.

The team from the Hawai‘i Creative Media, they're the ones that helped put all of this together this weekend.

Can you say chee hu?

takeaway is, hopefully for all the kids, encouraging them to find their own path.

The real win is finding out what your passion is and finding something that you created that you love.

It's time to share some of the students' award-winning work that was produced during the contest portion of the SHOOTS Summit.

Up first is this energy packed promotional video produced by Kaua‘i High School students.

It received first place in the high school division of the promo video contest.

Welcome to the fourth annual SHOOTS Summit.

Set in beautiful Hawai‘i.

Where students become storytellers.

Over 900 students... And one big competition.

Join us for Shoots Fo’Reals.

The SHOOTS Summit Hawai‘i is a three-day event for students, where we provide two days of on-site competitions and breakout sessions.

The idea is for students to come one day and compete and go and learn in our breakout sessions on the second day.

And then the third day, we bring everybody back and present awards that were judged that weekend for all of the competitions.

for us to hone our skills in media, along with working together with other people and meeting other people.

but also challenging experience.

I'm excited for our contest today.

We love it here.

I don't want to leave.

The feeling of hitting that submit button; I can't even put into words.

It's very rewarding all your hard work, all everything.

It takes all that weight off your chest from about six hours of competition.

[ocean wave] Let's watch a feature story produced by Moanalua High School students that received first place in the category's high school division.

It's the stuff in the background, stuff in the foreground, all that comes to make a good video.

‘Ōlelo Community Media, a nonprofit organization, has been capturing the community for about 40 years.

Take a close look.

It wants to give everybody who is out there the opportunity to create content, raise awareness by using media and video production.

We work together with everyone in the state, not just on O‘ahu and the citizens here.

But little do people know, lots of hard w put in behind the scenes.

Generally, our setup for whenever we go to any kind of site, we usually put down about three hours setup time.

As camera operators, our jobs are unseen because we're not in front of the camera, normally.

We, as the operators, engineers, if you don't hear about us or talk about us, we're doing a good job.

– that goes into a shoot like this.

We have to do something which we call a burn in, which means we're testing out every single piece of equipment beforehand and setting it up.

Though often unseen, the ‘ōlelo production team continues to carry the voices and stories of Hawai‘i.

Without the people behind the scenes, none of the things on camera will be able to work, or it won't even be like as good enough to like air.

To me, once we see the people's faces, the clients, how happy they are with the product, that's worth it.

This is Kanna Nakagawa, reporting for Now Loading News.

You may recognize this next correspondent from HIKI NŌ.

Emma Forges, who attends Waipahu High School on O‘ahu, received first place for this weather report.

January 20, it will be cloudy with a high of 78 and low of 70.

But enough of that.

Let's talk about the eclipse.

With low cloud coverage at zero octas, there's perfect visibility for this exciting phenomenon.

Maximum coverage for their clips will be at 10:45, to 11:15am.

Over these two days, UV, conditions remain high.

So remember, do not look directly at the sun, and eye protection is crucial.

also hosts a Short Film category for all ages.

Let's take a look at some of the stories they produced when given the prompt, ‘Change of Fortune.’ May I please have a water bottle?

That would be 67 cents.

Change?

Here's the change.

Thanks, I guess.

Are you okay?

Yeah.

You're tiny.

closing in on coordinates.

Will be wearing black sweater with green print, pink lanyard and gold badge.

Be ready.

[Sings to herself: I was a girl in the world..all right.]

There you are.

Here's the package.

What is this?

Where'd he go?

Deliver it to top of Building B. I guess I can deliver it.

The number of elementary school students participating in the SHOOTS Summit continues to grow.

PBS Hawai‘i sat down with some of the youngest students and their teachers to learn more about their experience.

I teach at Waikīkī Elementary School.

So, this is our first year bringing third grade students, and then we have a group of fourth and fifth graders too.

I think our students are so excited, and they have such great imaginations.

Doing camera work is fun.

I think they come in a little bit intimidated being with the middle schoolers and the high schoolers.

It's a little nerve wracking, because it's like there's people older than you, so then it's like they have more experience.

It feels very intimidating, because all these older kids are way more experienced.

But it was also fun, because I like talking to them and making friends.

Once they get to see what amazing things the middle schoolers and the high schoolers are doing, they get really inspired, and I think they start to feel a little bit more confident in themselves too and the great things that they're doing.

this is the challenge towards this, and like, knowing that everything isn't gonna be easy, like, helps me.

So, like, next time when I do this again, I'll be like, oh, I know what to do.

So, like, maybe later on in life, you want to be like a camera person, and then you already learned all this stuff when you were like, little, so you like, know more.

I love when our students come back to campus and they get to share everything that they've made here, everything that they've learned here.

They bring everything that they've learned at these workshops back to our schools, and then they're applying it to things that they're working on in class.

And that's a really great way that they get to share it with their classmates and all the other people who weren't able to make it here today.

[ocean wave] was my category, social media master.

We only had three hours – Can you believe it?

We only had three hours to film ourselves a vertical video given the prompt of ‘Main Character Energy.’ My entry won first place in the high school division.

I hope you enjoy it.

It's Day 21 of Hana, [sings] Hana Living Her Best Life.

We are going to the annual SHOOTS Summit Hawai‘i.

I don't know why the sign says danger.

I am the danger.

Here's the scary part.

Let's go say hi to a couple of people.

Hi!

And the best part is all my friends.

[ocean wave] Next is a feature story from the middle school division.

The first-place winner was Maui Waena Intermediate School.

I think unseen effort is the name of the game when it comes to making SHOOTS happen.

Here in Moanalua High School is the fourth annual SHOOTS Summit Hawai‘i, a statewide media competition built on efforts that don't always reach the screen.

So, the unseen efforts that go into putting an event like this are, there's a lot.

For one, our team of six teachers, we meet every week on a video call to plan this event.

I am one of many people who is doing stuff behind the scenes before the Summit to make sure that it can happen.

My job in particular is a lot of proofreading documents.

And these unseen efforts are not only performed by the staff, but also the students in this competition.

There are going to be a lot of unseen efforts that students go through to just produce a piece of content.

There's going to be one person in front of the camera, one person behind it.

A lot of times we only see the video that shows the person in front of it, but we don't see the person operating the camera.

So, there are a lot of things that is not seen, because all we see is the end product.

or whether you're a teacher or whether you're an organizer, there are a lot of unseen things that happen to make an event like this possible.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

of everyone in the event, SHOOTS Summit Hawai‘i will be able to keep the cameras rolling for years to come.

Reporting from Maui Waena Intermediate School for SHOOTS Summit Hawai‘I, this is Keely Cabreros.

Judges also tested students' abilities in motion graphics editing.

The following piece from Waipahu High School on O‘ahu took first place.

I'm proud to say my school, Kalāheo High, received another first place award in news story editing.

Let's watch.

Corey Howell began his surfing career at a young age, winning several surf titles before graduating high school.

Motivated by his desire to help athletes with injuries, he experienced himself during surfing, Howell decided to pursue a degree in chiropractic.

He now owns a clinic in Melbourne, Florida, balancing his love for surfing with his love for helping others.

I wanted to keep surfing a passion.

I wanted to be able to do a job that I like and enjoy, centered around a community that I like and enjoy.

As I started to go about bridging the gap between passion, competitiveness and a career, it started to be more like I want to show other people that you can have the career and still surf, just going for it.

You're going to make mistakes, but you got to figure it out.

And when I first opened the clinic, I didn't know what I was doing at all, but just being confident in who you are and what you bring to the table, even if it's not the same level, is okay.

People just want to be around good people.

So, if you focus on having good energy and just providing some little bit of benefit to the conversation, and even if it's just a good vibe, shoots, that's good.

Students also get the opportunity to test their skills as news anchors.

Let's watch a sampling of students from all divisions.

Their on-camera talent really shines.

It’s Amelia.

reporting at Moanalua High School.

Elementary School.

I'm so excited to be here at SHOOTS Summit today and see all the creativity from outer islands and Texas.

Living in Hawai‘i, we know taking care of our ocean is crucial.

This brings us to our first new report of a new reef restoration project on Maui.

Volcanoes control our landslides; massive tsunamis may follow.

On the topic of ocean currents, a 16-year-old Waipahu student has developed a compact device that detects tsunamis early.

The program Kumu Kai partnered with the University of Hawai‘i, will be using artificial intelligence powered underwater drones.

Well, I think we're running out of time.

That's all we have for this week.

Aloha and mahalo.

from SHOOTS Summit, I'm Airi Chang.

And I'm Sienna Sandoval.

I'm Kinzee Keyes.

And I'm Mari Sado reporting for –   wave] on their ability to produce nat packages, or stories without a reporter's voice.

Students from Maui Waena Intermediate School won first place in the category, even competing against high schools.

can be a hustle and bustle for Valentine's Day.

here in Honolulu, Hawai‘i.

Our florist name is Watanabe Floral.

Valentine's Day is definitely our busiest holiday and our most important holiday of the year.

It looks kind of crazy.

Like, sometimes the line will wrap like, usually goes like this, and then it goes like all the way through the store.

On a normal day, we have like, two registers going, but then on Valentine's Day, or like Valentine's week, we would probably open like, all the registers.

Just obtaining enough staffing, enough temporary help to get all that we need accomplished to sourcing the product.

When you're dealing with perishable products, there's a lot of things that can go wrong.

My team is just running around, processing all these flowers that we gather from all over the world.

And you know, like I said, you're talking about hundreds of thousands of flowers that we're bringing in, hundreds of thousands of arrangements that our team is making and that we're delivering to various people across the island.

The HIKI NŌ media teacher at Campbell High School, Wesley Adkins, sat down with us to talk more about the SHOOTS experience.

We keep coming back here to SHOOTS because it's an opportunity for students to show their grit, show their chops, and really just kind of like showcase all the things that they've built up, all the skills they've built up.

what makes it stay hard is like, you know, you're under a time crunch.

Doing the HIKI NŌ fall challenges and the winter challenges, and trying to produce something for HIKI NŌ has been the perfect preparation for an event like this.

You know, the quality that HIKI NŌ expects is the quality that wins here.

The best part is just seeing kids excited.

I do like seeing them be competitive.

For me, this is the varsity game.

We don't get every Friday night with the lights on us.

So, to come out here and have a moment where kids are really, really just championed for their filmmaking and production skills, it's golden in my book.

It's priceless.

There are a lot of students who are interested in pursuing animation, and many of them enter this next contest category, animated PSA.

They were given the theme ‘Leave It Bettah.’ Let's watch the first-place entry from Wai‘anae High School on O‘ahu.

We tend to think small things are insignificant, but when those little things start to pile up, the effects start to feel very real.

As people of the land, it is our responsibility to respect and show aloha to it.

With everyone doing their part, we can take care of the ‘āina, place and people.

All together, leave it bettah.

SHOOTS also had a personal vlog category, and students from Kealakehe High School on Hawai‘i Island won first place with this really charming entry.

Let's check out a clip.

So, the prompt we got today was, what is my real superpower?

What does that mean?

She's Kiara.

And she's Alohi.

And today, we're gonna be finding some of you to find what your real superpower is.

out.

so I'm here with: Ion.

Lily.

so do you guys have any hidden talents?

I mean, I'm kind of fast.

Do you want to have a race?

Wait, no, I didn't.

still wins.

What the heck.

You thinking what I’m thinking?

We could try.

My hidden talent is hitting the baseball.

Oh, my God bro.

Okay, I'm ready.

I can kind of yodel, like just a little bit.

I'm scared.

Is that good?

Wait no, no, I think you’re getting there.

One more, one more.

Okay.

And after meeting a bunch of new people, We learned that everyone is unique in their own little ways.

And that's what makes you have your real superpower.

And don't forget to: Live with aloha.

Well, that's it for our show.

This was only a sampling of the amazing work Hawai‘i students can produce.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about the next generation of storytellers.

You can keep up with Hawai‘i's New Wave of Storytellers by subscribing to PBS Hawai‘i on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

Find this HIKI NŌ episode and more at pbshawaii.org.

And of course, please tune in next week for more proof that Hawai‘i students HIKI NŌ, can do.

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