Yes. Families and young adults in Honolulu and across Oahu can work with a Blackburn mentor by video, with every session scheduled in Hawaii time. From Kahala and Manoa to Kailua, Hawaii Kai and Kaneohe, you can meet one dedicated mentor weekly or several times a week, with text and phone check-ins between sessions. Our team is based in Los Angeles.
Time zones, handled
Hawaii does not observe daylight saving time, so the gap with Los Angeles changes during the year. Honolulu is two hours behind Los Angeles in winter and three hours behind from March to November. We do the math so you do not have to:
- Sessions are always booked in Hawaii time, and the mentor adjusts when the mainland clocks change.
- A 3:30 pm after-school session in Honolulu falls in the late afternoon or early evening in California, which works well on both ends.
- Morning sessions before school or work are easy to place.
- Text and phone check-ins are timed to your day, not ours.
Island life and family expectations
Many Honolulu families are multigenerational, and ohana can carry real weight. Grandparents, aunties and uncles may have opinions about a young person’s path, and loyalty to family can be a big part of how decisions get made. A mentor respects that and works with it: goals are set with the student, and for high school students a parent or guardian is always involved through the intro call, goal setting and regular updates.
Oahu is also small. A teenager may feel there are only a few paths: stay, join the military, or leave for the mainland. A mentor helps widen the picture without pushing any one answer.
Leaving for the mainland
Many Hawaii students head to colleges on the West Coast and beyond, and the change is large: cold weather, a different culture, a five-hour flight home and a time difference that makes calling family harder. Homesickness can hit hard in the first semester. Because sessions are online, a mentor who starts with a student during senior year in Honolulu can keep meeting after the move, in the student’s new time zone. Our guides on homesickness in the first year and preparing a teen for college go deeper.
The cost of staying
Honolulu is one of the most expensive places in the country to live, and many young adults stay in the family home well into their twenties. That can work well, but it can also become a holding pattern. A mentor helps a young adult build a budget, set savings targets, grow in a job and agree fair expectations at home. See a living at home agreement and budgeting for young adults.
Military families on Oahu
With several large military installations on the island, many families arrive on orders and leave a few years later. A mentor who meets by video can stay with a student through a move to Oahu and the next move after it, which gives some continuity when everything else changes.
Where a mentor helps
A mentor is a steady guide focused on goals, habits and follow-through, not a tutor, therapist or admissions counselor. For teens, see mentoring for high school students; for students heading to the mainland, see college transition mentoring. More on how video sessions work is on the online mentoring page.
Related
- Online vs in-person mentoring
- Moving back home after college
- Mentoring for families
- How mentoring works
Common questions
Do you meet clients in person in Honolulu?
No. Our team is in Los Angeles, and mentoring in Hawaii happens by video, with text and phone contact between sessions.
How do you handle the time difference?
Every session is scheduled in Hawaii time. Because Hawaii does not change its clocks, the mentor adjusts when the mainland does, so your session time stays the same.
Can the same mentor continue when my child moves to the mainland for college?
Yes. Sessions follow the student and are rescheduled in their new local time zone.
Do you work with military families?
Yes. Video mentoring moves with the family, so a student can keep the same mentor through a reassignment.
Get started
Want to talk about a student or young adult in Hawaii? Call (888) 305 5422, email contact@blackburnmentoring.com or start with a short assessment. A member of our team reviews every assessment personally and sets up a free intro call.