Travis Chai Andrade, from Keaʻau, Hawaii, majored in Anthropology and minored in Archaeology at Princeton University. He is a recipient of the Society for American Archaeology's Native American Undergraduate Archaeology Scholarship, the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, The Office of Undergraduate Research Undergraduate Fund for Academic Conferences (to present at the Society for American Archaeology’s annual meeting), and Princeton Undergraduate Senior Thesis Research Funding. His thesis, “There Are No Real Hawaiians” was inspired by messages contained in a collection of Hawaiian postcards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The thesis promotes the understudied value of this form of media and addresses pressing issues of representation and contemporary Indigenous identity. In 2024, Travis received a ReachOut 56-81-06 Fellowship from Princeton that allowed him to complete a wahi kūpuna (heritage) stewardship on protecting Hawaiʻi’s ancestral places and uplifting local and Native communities.

As a Marshall Scholar, Travis will pursue an MA in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, & the Americas at the University of East Anglia. He aspires to eventually earn a Ph.D. to nurture future generations of students interested in material culture and inspire connections through heritage as a professor.