2024 HVERI-BIPC Intern Celebrated

The following article was published through the University of Hawaiʻi Hilo by Susan Enright:

UH Hilo communication major David Mayser interns jointly at press club and volcano education institute

David Mayser’s joint internship gave him the opportunity to gain professional experience by using the skills he learned in class to positively impact the Hawaiʻi island community.

An international Vulcan student-athlete majoring in communication at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is winding up a joint internship with two local organizations: the Big Island Press Club and the Hawaiian Volcano Education and Resilience Institute.

David Mayser, from Munich, Germany, is a 2019 graduate of Stadtisches Theodolinden-Gymnasium (High School) and will be receiving his bachelor of arts in communication at next week’s UH Hilo commencement where he will be student speaker representing his class.

“The internship was extremely impactful as it offered me the opportunity to gain professional experience by using the skills I learned throughout my undergraduate degree to positively impact the Hawaiʻi Island community,” says Mayser.

Come this fall, he will be pursuing a master of arts in communication studies and will be working as a graduate teaching assistant in the communication department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

While at UH Hilo on the men’s soccer team, Mayser has been a stellar student-athlete, earning multiple academic awards and honors throughout his time with the Vulcans. He also serves as a student representative on National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II advisory committees, notably to promote cultural diversity and equity, and concussion safety.

• Learn more about his national work, listen to interview: Mayser Has Helped Facilitate Change in Hilo and on the National Level

Mayser also is involved in service activities on campus. He is a member of a student advisory board, and is an American Red Cross-certified lifeguard at the Student Life Center. He is the recipient of a 2024 Leadership Award of the Ka Lama Kū Student Leadership Development Program.

And this semester, he’s also been honing his communication skills in a joint internship with the two local organizations.

The joint internship

Over the course of his undergraduate studies at UH Hilo, Mayser has taken all of the English classes taught by Assistant Professor of English Patsy Iwasaki, starting with English 100 when he was a freshman.

“I am very grateful for Professor Iwasaki’s guidance and support throughout the semester as well as prior throughout my undergraduate degree,” says Mayser. “She helped me to prepare for this internship opportunity, and was responsible for successful collaboration for all involved parties.”

Early this semester, Iwasaki, who sits on the board of the Big Island Press Club, sat down with Mayser, and the two mapped out an upper-level directed studies English course that included the joint internship with duties at both the Hilo-based press club (25% of the internship), and the Hawaiian Volcano Education and Resilience Institute (75% of the internship). Working collaboratively with Iwasaki and Mayser on the internship design were Royelen Lee Boykie, a board member of the press club, and Dane DuPont, co-executive director of the institute.  

“It has been an excellent applied learning, hands-on experience utilizing what he’s learned from classes to the real world,” says Iwasaki of Mayser’s work.

The Big Island Press Club is a media and communication group with a membership that includes professional journalists and communication experts spanning from old timers who have been covering Hawaiʻi Island for decades to more recent arrivals to the island. They are a wealth of knowledgeable people ready to give the next generation a boost into the profession.

Mayser’s tasks during his internship there were social media management, plus outreach to local students, educators, and guidance counselors to promote the club’s scholarships.

The Hawaiian Volcano Education and Resilience Institute is a local nonprofit that launched after the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea to improve disaster preparedness, response, and recovery through education and “resilience network building.” Among Mayser’s duties there were content creation, artificial intelligence trainings, and managing participation in workshops.

One of Mayser’s duties was to help facilitate and monitor the institute’s live weekly video broadcasts of “Hawaiian Volcano Tracker” that has a loyal viewership of hundreds. Mayser edited each week’s broadcast to summarize and highlight each session, and then posted the episodes online. He says he really enjoyed working with DuPont and Philip Ong, co-executive directors of the institute.

“As an international student, the options to gain professional experience are extremely limited due to regulations that restrict working in the United States on a student visa,” says Mayser. “It was great to work for two non-profit organizations who trusted me with responsibilities to work creatively on various tasks such as content creation, AI trainings, video editing, and strategic outreach efforts.”