Meet the Mentors

Zachary Fu is documentary filmmaker and journalist. He is a Magna Cum Laude graduate from Biola University with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. He has a passion for telling peoples’ stories and for finding creative ways to do things. He has worked with YouTube and Vine stars to create captivating online videos. This is his first year as a CTL fellows mentor. Zach is also a graduate of the 2010 class of CTL.

Role in the Fellows: Zach serves as a coach for the Maverick Group Project of CTL fellows. His role is to guide the group toward innovative ways of making a positive impact in Hawaii.

Start of involvement with CTL: After spending a year of traveling between California and Hawaii to do video production, Zach returned to Hawaii and reconnected with Katie Chang, the Executive Director of CTL. She offered him the opportunity to be a coach.

Impact seen in the Fellows Program: Zach has witnessed how CTL can change a person, even though the program spans less than a year. He has seen students gain confidence in who they are and what their strengths can contribute to building a better Hawaii. The experiences that this program offers are highly beneficial for students who truly want to make a difference in this world.

Vision for the Fellows/CTL: Zach’s vision is to see these students find unique ways to positively impact the world.

Cody Hensarling is a 2005 graduate of Kamehameha High School and a 2011 Graduate of McNeese State University. He has a BA in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Critical Thinking. He coaches speech and debate for the Hawaii Stoa affiliated clubs, and for the UH-Manoa Debate Society. He is the Office Manager for State Rep. Aaron Ling Johanson.

Role in the Fellows: This is Cody's second year as a coach in the Fellows Program. He teaches the communication and critical thinking components and is a project mentor.

Start of involvement with CTL: His brother Carson was a graduate of the 2007 Fellows Class, and always spoke highly about the program. Katie Chang, who is a childhood friend of mine, approached him in 2013 about coming on board, and the rest is history.

Impact seen in the Fellows Program: He has seen students drastically improve their public speech skills to the point of being able to confidently address a room of hundreds of people. He has seen students ask critical questions of state leaders that lead to quality answers and impress the leaders themselves. He has seen students grow in tangible leadership skills and run projects with lasting impact.

Vision for the Fellows/CTL: He sees the Fellows Program continuing to provide vital skills training and leadership experience for the future generation of Hawaii's leaders.

Past Mentors

Tiffany Quezada is a first year mentor for the Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders Fellows Program. Tiffany is the Co-founder and Director of Product Marketing for Hobnob a mobile focused event invitation startup based in Honolulu. Previously she was the Co-founder and COO of Minded a gifting startup that is a graduate of the inaugural class of the Blue Startups Accelerator. Tiffany has twelve years of experience managing and marketing events including gala dinners, chef events, fashion shows, golf tournaments, non-profit fundraising, retail campaigns, promotions, weddings and launch parties. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a BA in Speech Communications. 

Role in the Fellows: She is a first year mentor and advisor for the Fahrenheit 73 project which is a student led initiative to promote healthy learning environments for students. Fahrenheit 73 is a project developed out of the Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders Fellows Program class of 2015. Her first experience with the Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders was helping to advise and support their first annual gala dinner in 2013.

Start of involvement with CTL:  She initially heard about CTL from their Executive Director, Katie Chang. She was impressed by her vision for the program and their focus on raising up non-traditional leaders in public schools. When she had the chance to join the team as a mentor, she immediately accepted the opportunity to work with such outstanding young students.

Impact seen in the Fellows Program: Already she has seen such tremendous growth from the students in the 2015 Fellow’s Program. Each and every one of the student is outstanding in their own right, but as a group they are truly exceptional. Throughout the program she has been privileged to witness these twenty students gain confidence, practice leadership skills, take action in their community, interview top business leaders and become eloquent public speakers all in just a few short months.

Vision for the Fellows/CTL:  Her vision for CTL as a whole is that they have a program in every public school in the state. She believes leadership training should be a part of every junior/senior’s high school curriculum. If we really want Hawaii’s next generation to be leaders who enact lasting change in their community then we need to start educating them on what it means to actually be a leader before they leave for college. Many high achieving high school students believe that they need to move to the mainland in order to be successful and find opportunities. If we don’t change this perception we will continue to lose the rising young leaders to opportunities elsewhere. We need to teach them how to be the change in their community by showing them what Hawaii has to offer in terms of career and business opportunities.