Extended Personal Intensive / Internship Trainings at Friendly Aquaponics in Hawaii
Spend two months in beautiful, sunny Hawaii and learn everything you need to know about aquaponics to successfully build and operate your own aquaponics farm of any size, anywhere in the world, which we will help you design!
This is the deal:
An Extended Personal Intensive / Internship Training consists of two months on the farm, free semi-private room, free food (and we eat very well!), free hot showers, free internet, laundromat-style washer and dryer, and two 256 sq.ft. aquaponics systems (non-commercial) that you can play with to your heart’s content. We also include you in trips to the beach and other excursions with our “Farmily” in our 15-passenger van, if desired. We give you EVERYTHING we know about aquaponics, aquaculture, tilapia breeding, system chemistry, plant biology, mechanical systems, grant writing and receiving, alternative energy and off-grid aquaponics, biogas, business, and marketing, in both formal “class” time, and informally, in the course of our day-to-day work, on our farm as well as special half-day activities on four other commercial aquaponics operations here on the Big Island, built and run by our students. You will have an awesome opportunity to get a tan (well, a farmer’s tan, anyway!). You participate alongside us in our day-to-day aquaponics activities from Monday through Friday, and that earns you a spot in the Saturday activities.
Four of the Saturdays you are here, you will have the opportunity to receive a half-day of formal training, where we cover everything that we cover in a two-day Personal Intensive Training ($2500 tuition, for two days, and this Personal Intensive does NOT include room and board). The other four Saturdays give you the chance to go to one of our student’s commercial aquaponics farms here on the Big Island, and to participate with them. You will get to learn all the creative and incredible things they have learned since doing their training with us, as well as seeing first hand all the innovations they have discovered that we never would have thought of!
Start dates are January 1, March 1, May 1, July 1, September 1, and November 1, and are not negotiable, as the first Saturday of the month includes the free public farm tour we offer, as well as the orientation. You’re welcome to arrive in Hawaii earlier and get to know the island until your internship start date, but you will need to provide your own meals, accommodations, and transportation during the time you do this; you will not be able to live at the farm until your official start date.
We often go to the beach or do barbecues Saturday afternoon, and take all of Sundays off. You are welcome to come along with us on our days off, but if we stay home, please understand this opportunity does NOT include the use of one of our vehicles. You are welcome to rent a car, make friends and get a ride with them, take the bus (free!), or hitchhike (very safe and common here in Hawaii). We don’t have servants or a cook; everyone pitches in to cook and clean and accepts assigned chores, and you do your own laundry (in a machine we provide, that eats your quarters; we provide the soap).
We understand you will operate with integrity, non-violence, and are a hard worker. You understand you are joining our “Farmily:, and if you come with an “attitude of gratitude”, and give more than you take, you will forever be a member of our “ohana” (Hawaiian for “family”, and that we will teach you everything we know.
Here’s the financial arrangement: You pay us $2,500 a minimum of 30 days before your arrival, and sign a Memorandum of Understanding, detailing all our agreements, and receive our Commercial Training materials (a $995 value), so you can begin studying aquaponics before your arrival. Room, board, electricity, utilities, and internet is provided (which is a $437/week value in Hawaii, as a resident, MUCH more if you are a “transient” or “tourist”). The first Saturday you are here, you begin your Personal Intensive-style training ($2500 value), which will be spread out over the two months you are here, given in half-day increments. Please understand that after one week, this is a non-refundable fee; whenever you elect to leave, you will still leave with the DIY training materials and everything you have gained during the time you are here. You have a seven day “free look” before you commit, and if you decide this opportunity is not for you, we will refund all but $1,200 of your tuition (you get to keep the manuals). After this week you may leave anytime, but the tuition is non-refundable. This way, if an intern bails after the first week, we are still happy for the time we spent on them, which otherwise would have gone into teaching more committed interns. This also gives you a reason to stick it out through the “carry water, chop wood” period that sometimes comes before you fall deeply in love with aquaponics. With your great attitude, flexibility, curiosity, and willingness to learn, we offer you a whole new life.
After two months of successful participation, a Certificate of Completion of Aquaponics Internship will be awarded, which you can use as a reference of your experience from our farm to any other aquaponics operation in the world. Under certain circumstances, you might be invited to stay on for a longer term, for an additional fee.
Compare this opportunity to Nelson and Pade’s “Extended Stay Learning Program” (https://www.aquaponics.com/workshopsextendedstay.php), which offers the opportunity to work in an aquaponics facility (NOT a commercial farm), where tuition is $2,000 the first month and $1000 for successive months, with no room, food, internet, laundry facilities, or showers included. Also (to the best of our knowledge) Nelson and Pade require everyone who participates with them to sign a legal document stating that they will never teach anyone else what they have learned there. We, on the other hand, WANT you to teach others, and encourage people in being “Johnny Appleseeds” of aquaponics.
People come to us all the time for our Hawaii Group Trainings and Personal Intensive Trainings, which, because of their limited time span (two to four days), provide much less training and experience than you will get from a Friendly Aquaponics Extended Personal Intensive / Internship Training (and we DON’T feed or house these training participants!). We put a lot of time and effort into sharing our skills and knowledge, but we don’t spoon-feed the interns aquaponics; if you just sit there like a bump on a log waiting for us to pour aquaponics knowledge into your cup, you probably won’t learn much. However, we DO put a lot of time and energy into the people who show interest in aquaponics (and have the most intelligent questions). After three or four “RTFM” (“Read The Friendly Manual!”) questions from an intern who hasn’t bothered to read the manual yet, we tend to spend less time on that person. We concentrate on those who are really working to understand this practical technique, because putting our effort there is a good investment. We teach aquaponics our way, because we’ve found that our way works.
In the past, we discovered we had interns who were illegal drug users, smokers, or alcohol abusers who lied (or were in denial) about their habits before coming here, and we had to ask them to leave. So, please note: WE ARE AN ALCOHOL, DRUG- AND TOBACCO-FREE farm. We are a family and do not tolerate any illegal drug use or alcohol use here on the Farm. Because of the high risk of tobacco mosaic virus transferring to other crops from tobacco products, we don’t allow ANY tobacco products onto the farm. And if you want to drink alcohol, there is a cute little Sports Bar in town that could use your business.
Of course, we are happy to give you a list of interns (both past and present) who can tell you what it’s like here. If you want to sign up to be an intern, or have any questions about the terms of the internships, email Susanne and she will start you on this process.
PLEASE NOTE: at the end of your two-month term, if we find that we’re a GREAT match, you may be interested in staying longer, and opening the possibility of some sort of larger partnership, which would include profit-sharing. This would be contingent upon your completing a six (6) month internship (with additional months at a reduced fee of $600 per month), and is at the full discretion of both you and the Friendly Aquaponics “Farmily”. So, by invitation, you could stay six months for a total of $5,900. This allows us to really get to know you, and to pave the way for a long-term partnership that includes dealing with our issues as they come up, breaking through communication blockages, etc. We need to screen potential partners in this manner because we have been terribly disappointed by some people in the past who said they wanted to partner, but whose actions did not bear this out. This gives us both a good, long time to get to know each other, and to progress far beyond the “masks” or “acts” that many people put up, and to see into the authenticity that would either make or break a partnership over the long haul.
We are looking for people who want to change the world, and who are willing to change themselves first. We are looking for people who want to help others by pouring from a full cup, not an empty one. We are looking for family and friends we have not yet met. So, if you are open-minded and open-hearted, flexible, non-judgmental, loving, committed, and a hard worker, we’d love to hear from you. There is much to be done, and time is short. Thanks for reading so far, and remember, contact Susanne, not Tim. THANKS!
