HiTech Quest is a non-profit organization that believes that a strong IT industry in Hawaii starts with youth education and training.

It began in 1999 as an annual Scholarship Competition to do the following:

1. Identify young people in Hawaii with information technology ideas and skills and give them the opportunity to showcase their abilities to other schools and business and professional experts.

2. Reward students for their commitment, creativity and technical skills by offering scholarships and prizes.

3. Encourage the Information Technology industry to recognize and utilize Hawaii's developing youth.

Over the five years of the competition, there have been more than 250 projects entered into the competition by 649 students from 33 schools (public, private and home school). More than $100,000.00 in scholarship money and software prizes has been awarded in recognition of the student's accomplishments.

There are two primary programs under HiTech Quest:

1. The Annual HiTech Quest Scholarship Competition
2. Technology-focused enrichment programs to enable youth to develop additional skills that will enable them to be successful in the technology industry.

The HiTech Quest Scholarship Competition is an opportunity for students to put their technical skills to the test and see how they measure up in comparison to their peers. The competition is designed to test participants·technical skills as well as project management, communication and team building skills. Students must deliver a working project that fulfills the judging criteria in a timely manner. They must also effectively communicate why and how their project was developed.

The technology-focused enrichment programs will challenge students to develop additional technical skills. Because the programs are project-based in a real-world context, the participants develop an understanding of what will take to be successful in a career in this highly competitive, ever changing industry.