For more than a century, the University of Hawaiʻi has worked hard to make higher education accessible to all. Whether through one of the seven community college campuses or one of the three four-year campuses, UH is expanding its efforts to attract the most promising students, regardless of their financial circumstances.
As college costs continue to rise, the amount of private support for students must as well. Gifts to scholarships and student aid help us to retain our best and brightest and to provide access to a life-changing higher education experience for our students.
Brig. Gen. Edwin A. “Skip” Vincent, left, seen with Jon Osorio, dean of the Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, founded the Hawaii Pacific Foundation after retiring from a long career in the Hawaiʻi Air National Guard as a way to give back to the Native Hawaiian community. “What we're doing is we're taking the helpers and the people who need help and we’re a bridge between them, finding ways to allow them to communicate better,” Vincent says. The Native Hawaiian organization has invested nearly $1 million in UH programs that benefit Native Hawaiian students and their communities by helping to empower them and those around them.
A gift from alumna Lori Admiral and her husband, Mark, creates the Admiral Residency in Contemporary Pacific Art at the UH Mānoa’s Department of Art and Art History, which will bring two visiting artists to campus to help art students see other cultures and perspectives. “Being a student in the art department was rewarding, and I felt it was important to give back,” says Lori Admiral, who earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in art history at UH Mānoa. “When my husband, Mark, and I learned that funding for a teaching residency was a priority for the Department of Art and Art History, it was easy to offer support.
Dr. Kem Lowry was the kind of teacher, mentor and friend whose kindness, generosity and skill in teaching, and listening, inspired and enriched the lives of his students and colleagues at UH Mānoa — and allowed everyone he met to be their best selves. His legacy will live on with the Dr. Kem Lowry Scholarship Endowment.
