Kūhiō Fellows

Sydney Pike

Office of Mazie Hirono (HI)
Home State: La Palma, California,
School: University of California, Los Angeles
Degree: Political Science, Minor Environmental Systems and Society (BA ‘24)
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Sydney Pike is Native Hawaiian on her mother’s side, hailing from Kohala on the Big Island. Born and raised in Southern California, Sydney discovered her passion for advocacy at Cypress College, where she served as President of Cypress College Associated Students and graduated with an Associate in Arts in Political Science. Sydney transferred to and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) summa cum laude in 2024 with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Environmental Systems and Society.

Driven by her commitment to serving and uplifting Native Hawaiian communities in Hawaiʻi and across the continent, Sydney recently served as the Policy Lead at Pacific Islander Health Partnership, where she developed and implemented policy strategies to promote health equity for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities. Her responsibilities included monitoring regulatory and legislative trends, developing advocacy programming and political education, conducting research, and building community networks for advocacy.

Previously, she served as a Junior Analyst at the NHPI Data Policy Lab at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, where she supported the development of a social drivers of health data platform by identifying relevant data sources, producing data visualizations, and assisting with the creation of community data trainings.

Sydney also has government experience through internships with Senator Alex Padilla’s Los Angeles District Office, the City of Long Beach City Manager’s Office, and the Center for Asian Americans United for Self-Empowerment (CAUSE), where she focused on legislative research, civic engagement, and policy analysis. At UCLA, she was actively involved in student leadership, holding key positions in the Pacific Islands’ Student Association (PISA), serving as Higher Education Awareness Coordinator for the Pacific Islander Education and Retention (PIER) project, and participating in the Mauna Kea Protectors Campaign and the UC Students Enacting Environmental Defense campaign. She has also participated in research examining Asian American and Pacific Islander civic engagement in Los Angeles County and authored an undergraduate thesis on Native Hawaiian blood quantum politics.

Driven by her commitment to environmental justice and Native Hawaiian rights, Sydney aspires to further her education by pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy or Environment and Sustainability, as well as a Juris Doctorate. Sydney is passionate about shaping creative solutions to Native Hawaiian issues and creating Hawaiian futurisms that spread across the continent and diaspora.