UH Maui College graduate, others create scholarships for students

This year’s University of Hawaiʻi Maui College commencement student speaker shared much more than words of wisdom as she graduated with her accounting degree. Carla-Mae Bailey created a scholarship to assist students who are going through a difficult life transition, and to help provide them with a new beginning.

As a student, Bailey received tremendous support from the college when she was going through a challenging life transition. Her scholarship was one of three new scholarships created by donors this year for UH Maui College students. The University of Hawaiʻi Foundation awarded a total of $280,000 in scholarships to Maui students in the most recent academic year, providing 271 awards to 196 recipients.

In May, UH Maui College held a ceremony for donors to connect with the recipients of their scholarships and, in many cases, to share the values of the individual memorialized by the scholarship. The three new scholarships created this year are the Carla-Mae Bailey “New Beginnings” Scholarship, the Aloha Makena Scholarship and the Rich Serbin ECET/ENGT scholarship.

The Aloha Makena Scholarship is provided by the Makena Golf and Beach Club and is allocated to a student in sustainable science management, agriculture or Hawaiian studies. The donors hope to foster connections between students and the Makena area. The Rich Serbin Scholarship is awarded to students in the engineering technology or the electronic and computer engineering technology programs. A computer scientist who moved to Maui, Serbin is particularly interested in helping students labeled as “minorities” in other institutions to succeed.

UH Maui College offers bachelors degree programs in applied business and information technology, engineering technology, and sustainable science management and associate degrees or certificates in more than 20 other programs including nursing, dental hygiene, culinary arts, accounting, creative media, construction technology, automotive technology, business administration, early childhood education and more.