Natural Resources: Research Assistant
Natural Resources
Ayja Nakasone: Research Assistant
By Mike Yoshiura • Photos by Scott T. Kubo
As a kid, Ayja Nakasone’s grandmother would baby-sit her, and the two would spend countless hours outside in her grandmother’s garden on the Windward side of O‘ahu. Now, at age 25, Ayja can still visualize the landscape of her grandmother’s backyard—the prickly, Arizona grass and her grandmother’s cactus plants—all 30,000 of them. “It was a very unfriendly environment for kids because everything had thorns. But, I have many fond memories of my grandmother there,” Ayja says. “She was in the garden everyday, from beginning to end. It was all she did. As a result, she had a really bad slipper tan.” Her grandmother planted thousands of cactus seeds over the course of her life.
However, the most important seed is still growing strong—Ayja’s passion for agriculture. “A lot of people don’t know what they want to do with their life until they’re 20-something. I was one of the lucky ones,” Ayja says.
In her junior year at Campbell High School, Ayja registered for Future Farmers of America (FFA). The FFA motivated her to pursue a career in agriculture, specifically agricultural economics. The group is an American youth organization also known as a Career and Technical Student Organization, which is based on high school classes that promote and support agricultural education.
When she graduated from high school in 2001, Ayja enrolled at the University of Hawai‘i (UH) and entered the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR). “CTAHR is the oldest college at UH, and it has so many degrees to choose from. After meeting with an advisor, I narrowed down my interests and decided on natural resources and environmental management,” Ayja says. “The department has a really good advisory program, and my professors served as good mentors for me. You’re not just thrown to the wolves.”
Ayja graduated from UH in 2005, and 12 months later she started her new career as a research assistant at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Here in the Islands, its farms develop new corn hybrids, along with soybean and sunflower varieties, which are shipped to farmers on the Mainland and other parts of the world.
Research assistants like Ayja must accurately manage spreadsheets for the different seed geneses and conduct field and laboratory experiments. She also assists in cleaning, handling, packaging, and storing field and laboratory material.
In July, Ayja started her own garden at her home in Makakilo. It consists of a pear tree, watermelons, cucumbers, eggplants, sunflowers, papayas and sweet potatoes. “If you’re interested in this type of career, start a garden,” she says. “Every time you plant something, you get something back.”