Get Involved

Exposure to positive role models in the community, from recent alumni to kupuna, helps us create engaging and long-lasting learning experiences for our students.

Student Internships

Want to spend more time in the garden or behind the scenes developing content? Current WMS students or alumni are welcome to contact Zoe about opportunities to advance your skills and gain experiences for your future. No matter your age, interests or goals, the garden has a place for you. Depending on each situation, Mālaʻai often has funding in order to provide a small stipend. (An internship always looks great on a resume!) 

 

Volunteers

Volunteers are crucial to our success. Our hope and goal is for volunteers to find their time at Māla’ai to be deeply rewarding. Most importantly, volunteering demonstrates to students the caring and commitment of the larger community. There are many ways to engage with Mālaʻai:

During Classes

We invite volunteers to work directly with students during garden classes. With classes of 20-22 students, we need at least one volunteer with each garden class to achieve our goal of one adult to every 6 students. All regular volunteers must do an orientation, garden tour, and background check before working with students in the garden. Please fill out our volunteer application and we will be in touch!

Skill Share

Is there a craft or skill that you would like to share with our students? We love learning cultural practices from local experts, and we are always looking for those with experience in construction and building, culinary, art, engineering and more to share their talents with our students.

 

Sourcing Materials

We appreciate donations of wood chips for mulching, and manure for our compost and other garden inputs, seeds, plants and supplies such as tools. Fruit and food donations are always welcome as we provide a snack for all students at every class. **Please be aware nuts are not allowed on campus**

Community Garden Workdays

Throughout the year we host volunteer workdays where we gather to accomplish a larger jobs in the garden and to build community. If you are interested in joining for a workday, please subscribe to our volunteer email list. If you would like to schedule community outreach for your organization or business, please contact Gabriel.

 

Special Project Volunteers

These volunteers are mostly self-directed, working on specific areas in the garden or doing special projects on their own (designing, building, pruning, etc) helping maintain the garden itself. If you have a specific skill set or interest please let us know. 

Get Involved / Sign Up

If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out our volunteer contact form.

You may also download and read the following Volunteer Guidelines  

Each new volunteer is required to attend orientation before beginning work in the garden with students. Volunteer orientation is scheduled as needed. If volunteering for an extended period, the school requires additional volunteer processing, which will be explained.

 

Garden Agreements

These agreements are the basis of our behavior and attitudes in the garden. We ask all volunteers and students to understand and be guided by them.

I will be

  • Kind and Respectful

  • Use my Time Well

  • Have an Open Mind

  • Be my Best Self


Arrival

Check in at the school office. Arrive in the garden 10 minutes before the class is due to begin to review lessons and jobs of the day with the Garden Teacher or Assistant. Please know it is disruptive to arrive after the class has begun.

Scheduling

Volunteers generally work in the garden with the same class or classes each week for a Quarter. Committing to one day a week at a regular time usually works best with our volunteers’ schedule. This consistency and dependability is also most rewarding for the students, since it allows them to build relationships with adults.

What to Wear

You will be working with Middle School students. Please wear clothing that is appropriate to the middle school environment. School Dress Code dictates: no short shorts or skirts, no spaghetti strap tank tops, and midriffs and cleavage should be covered. Waimea weather can be very changeable – and sometimes cold. We recommend layering and bringing a change of clothes – expect to get dirty. Bring a jacket or sweater and wear covered shoes.

Conduct

You are serving as a mentor to the students. It is of utmost importance that dress, attitude, language and actions reflect respect and integrity to the people and the place. Interviews, photographing students, videotaping, and special projects require permission from the Garden Teacher. This is a matter of both respect and legality.

What our volunteers do

Volunteers may work alongside students and teachers, occasionally supervise small groups on their own, or work alone outside of class time to maintain the garden itself. Mala’ai provides tools and gloves for students and volunteers, if you have favorite tools you are welcome to bring them with you. Please remember to bring weather protection and drinking water.