WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
DUSTIN KAIKOO VALDEZ, YOUTH TOUR 2008
By Allison Young

For this issue, we talked story with Dustin Kaikoo Valdez, a Youth Tour 2008 alumnus. Dustin is from Kapa‘a and graduated from Kapa‘a High and UCLA. Dustin is working on his Ph.D. at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where he is a graduate research assistant at the UH Cancer Center.

Aloha, Dustin. What’s your favorite memory from Youth Tour?

It’s really hard to pick out one memory from Youth Tour. Traveling together with the Kansas group was one of my favorite experiences. In many ways, it was a taste of what college would be like—interacting with peers from backgrounds very different than my own. I also remember being amazed at how flat Kansas was. It was the first time in my life I had ever been to a place that didn’t have any mountains.

Tell us about your path after graduation.

After graduating high school, I went to college at UCLA. I had an incredibly fulfilling experience there and it really helped to cultivate the type of person I am today. I earned my degree in cognitive science and anthropology, and then came back to Kaua‘i for a few gap years before I applied to graduate school. During that time, I was an academic tutor at Kaua‘i Community College in chemistry, microbiology and general sciences. I then was accepted into the nutritional sciences Ph.D. program at UH Mānoa. I originally did nutrition research on excessive gestational weight gain through an SMS[1]based nutrition intervention. However, after my mother was diagnosed and passed away with cancer, I switched my research focus to cancer research. I’m in my last year of my Ph.D. program working as a graduate research assistant at the UH Cancer Center studying breast cancer screening in low-resource areas of the Pacific through portable ultrasound and artificial intelligence. My plan is to continue being a cancer researcher as a professor.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I have a variety of hobbies. To this day, I still play tennis regularly (I learned in middle school and was tennis captain in high school). During college, I picked up taiko drumming and taekwondo. For a little while I used to teach a children’s taiko group on Kaua‘i called Joyful Noise. As for taekwondo, I kept training and received my black belt a few years later. I recently picked up digital art, so I’m enjoying learning new art techniques.

Which one of KIUC’s Ho‘oka‘ana Waiwai shared values most resonates with you?

Laulima. “We will work together toward common goals where one person’s success is everyone’s success. I will combine my best efforts with others.” As I further my education, I realize that no one can make progress in isolation. Perhaps that was true in the past but not today. The complex issues that researchers have to solve require collaboration with a multitude of individuals and organizations. It really is the accumulation of everyone’s unique expertise and perspectives that allows scientific breakthroughs to be made.