Richardson Law School student will work as summer intern on Capitol Hill

William S. Richardson School of Law student Janna Wehilani "Wehi" Ahu, whose family comes from the tiny fishing village of Miloli‘i on Hawai‘i Island, has been named the 2014 Patsy T. Mink Legislative Fellow.  She receives a $5,000 stipend from the Law School to pay for a summer internship in Washington D.C., working in the office of U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono for 10 weeks.

Ahu is completing her first year at Richardson Law School on the UH M?noa campus, and was inspired to study law because of problems faced by the small village of 400 people who struggle to maintain their traditional culture around subsistence fishing and hunting.

"I want to focus on fisheries management, and I came to law school to learn how to keep our fisheries healthy," said Ahu.  She is particularly hopeful about trying to get funding to help protect the fishery of tiny opelu in the waters off Miloli‘i.

Ahu first learned to speak Hawaiian from her grandmother, a native speaker, and continued her studies at Kamehameha and UH Manoa.  Her childhood was spent both in Hilo and with in Miloli‘i.

Read the entire piece at: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=6527