Tara Sua’ava doesn’t officially graduate from the University of Hawaii Travel Industry Management School until summer, but thanks to the connections she picked up in high school, she’s already is working in the visitor industry.

Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club hired Sua’ava to work part time last year after she excelled in an internship. It was a dream made possible by her participation as a high school student in the ClimbHI’s Lead, Explore, Inspire program, which exposes students across Hawaii to potential careers in the state’s largest industry: travel and tourism.

“I thought the visitor industry was competitive and closed off to people like me, but LEI was a huge stepping stone,” said Sua’ava, who grew up in small-town Nanakuli. “It opened so many doors for me. I was able to network myself and meet so many professionals.”

Sua’ava is just one of the success stories to come from ClimbHI’s LEI events, which introduces 1,000 high school students annually to visitor industry careers. This year’s events took place April 3 to April 18 on Oahu, Kauai, Hawaii island and Maui. The addition of a new online component to the program this year means it’s going year-round. It’s also been opened to other job sectors to expose many more students to careers at home.

ClimbHI president and founder Julie Morikawa said she started the nonprofit in 2012 to “inspire students to finish high school and proceed to post-secondary education or employment by educating them about future career paths and the process necessary to achieve those goals.”

Morikawa’s goal has always been to take ClimbHI’s model nationwide. The decision to introduce an online tool called the ClimbHi opportunity portal has brought Morikawa one step closer to that goal.

“For the past eight years, we have grown the LEI Program from a few schools and a couple hundred students to being statewide and reaching out to every public school in the state. Yet, we know there are students that are unable to attend the events who could benefit from learning and exploring all career fields,” Morikawa said. “By creating the ClimbHI opportunity portal, businesses can find potential student workers, teachers can find guest speakers or field trip opportunities, and students can find internships, jobs or scholarships. This will be a great extension of our LEI program events.”

Morikawa said the site, portal.climbhi.org, isn’t meant to replicate job boards like Craigslist or Indeed, but rather to “bring to light all the opportunities that have been missed.”

For instance, Morikawa said Pleasant Holidays, a travel wholesaler to Hawaii, couldn’t offer students internships or site visits but could provide the chance to serve in a focus group by participating in activities and reviewing them.

“It gives Pleasant market information about millennial preferences and it gives students more exposure to the visitor industry,” she said.

Teri Orton, general manager of the Hawai‘i Convention Center, said the facility is offering ClimbHI participants the opportunity to take site visits and shadow employees.

“We want to give them a perspective of what it’s like to be in the industry. We can give them guidance on what classes to take and what foreign languages to study to get better positions. Eventually, we may be offering them internships and maybe even a job,” Orton said.

“It’s a tight labor market. It’s difficult for us to fill positions at the center and our hotel partners are having some challenges, too. It’s important that we let these students know that we value them and want them to stay here and contribute back to our hospitality industry.”

Caroline Anderson, director of community enrichment for Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, said the agency has been supporting ClimbHI and LEI since their inception and now provides about $80,000 a year to the program. ClimbHI and LEI also aligns with the new Ho‘oilina Scholarships, a $500,000 endowment launched this year with the Hawai‘i Lodging &Tourism Association, Anderson said.

“It’s also about just having in the industry kids who have grown up in Hawaii and having them be a part of it,” she said.