Inspiration

Growing up, we noticed that as generations age, the next generation loses some of the traditional heritage.

Hi, I’m Evelyn. As a third-generation Chinese American, I’ve watched my family’s heritage fade with each generation. Schools rarely teach the many cultures that make up our communities, and today I’m still learning to speak Chinese. That’s why we built Haole: to preserve the traditions that are slipping away. I also love to travel. In Paris and Japan, I noticed that traditional recipes and crafts were often kept alive by elders. And I kept wondering: if they never pass that knowledge down, will it be lost forever?”

I'm Zoey, and as a 1st generation American living across the world from my grandparents, I've seen my culture being lost over time as it has been hard to communicate over long distance. I hope to prevent this culture loss for teens and feeling of isolation in seniors by creating Haole.

What it does

Haole connects generations through a simple and easily accessible platform so culture isn't lost. It allows students to learn more about the diverse cultures and traditions that aren't taught in a classroom through seniors that are willing to share about their heritage. Based off of schedules, students can request sessions with seniors to learn more about their specific craft/ expertise, and seniors can either accept, decline, or suggest another time for meetup. This is an easy low-friction interface for both seniors and students so anyone can navigate and access Haole easily.

How we built it

First, we brainstormed ideas and problems in our community that we face- and we landed on culture being lost through generations. Then, we validated this idea through the rubric making sure that our idea fulfills the requirements. We designed the interface and design of the branding using different color schemes and decided on the name Haole- which originates from Chinese and means "good enough" which funny enough is what a lot of Chinese grandmas say when you cook a dish. Then, we put the full document of the interface including all the specific details into Claude to help write our code- because this is our first hackathon and we don't much coding experience. Lastly, we tested out the final app and we created our presentations. We care much about the execution, so we spent a lot of time working on the graphics and making sure our demo video was short and sweet for the judges.

Challenges we ran into

Working as a team was difficult as the start, but we learned how to use both of our skillsets to our advantages. Coming into this hackathon, we didn't know each other because both of us were new to hackathons- which created a difficulty in knowing which one of us was assigned to do which part of the project. However, we quickly got to know each other and worked together smoothly.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of successfully completing our first hackathon and creating something that is both impactful and innovative. The problem we solved is a problem that appears directly in our lives right infront of our eyes. The cultural gap between generations in a family is a big issue for both of us, and we're proud to have come up with a solution for it.

What we learned

Hi- it's Evelyn, I learned how to ship a product fast while making sure that the quality was great and also the user would find the application simple and easy to use. Zoey - I learned to create a high quality solution to a realistic issue in a short amount of time.

What's next for Haole

Our future goal is to collaborate with real local schools and senior centers to turn this product into reality and shape the future of how culture is spread, preserving valuable heritage and traditions forever ! :)