
Aloha,
As we approach the end of this school year, we reflect on the incredible resilience our students at the University of Hawaiʻi have demonstrated since the fall — and the support from you that’s made everything possible.
Our stories in this issue of Kūpono tell of scholarships created with love — by a faculty member to honor the memory of his remarkable wife, by the family of a professor and environmental expert who had the knack of allowing everyone around him to be their best selves and by a couple whose passions included food and UH basketball.
We also explain how the James and Abigail Family Foundation Scholarships in Teacher Education are producing new leaders in education on Oʻahu’s Leeward Coast, how the Hawaii Pacific Foundation invests in the Native Hawaiian community and why a UH alumna followed her passion to create an artist residency in Contemporary Pacific Art.
We have also seen a wide range of giving this year: A gift from Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg for ocean conservation will support research groups within Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology for the next seven years. A separate gift from the couple funds a program to train physicians on Kauaʻi. HMSA endowed a health economics professorship within the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization. Oak Foundation seeded an innovative youth mentoring program.
These stories and your inspiring support allow our students, faculty and researchers to keep reaching for the stars!
Mahalo,
Tim Dolan
University Of Hawai‘i Foundation CEO
Featured Stories
Campbell Family Foundation scholarship recipients pay it forward through education

The scholarships Ray Pikelny-Cook, left, and Shanna Laʻa received from the James and Abigail Campell Family Foundation when they were studying at UH Mānoa to become teachers impacted not only their lives and careers as educators, but the futures of their own children and countless children on Oʻahu’s Waianae Coast. » More
Transformative gifts address pressing challenges to our oceans, health care

A $50 million commitment from Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg will support research at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at UH Mānoa. A $10 million gift to UH Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine funds the new Kaua‘i Medical Training Track, a multi-pronged program on Kaua‘i to help address the physician shortage and improve access to health care services.
Reflections on a shared life of love

Bernard and Pamela Lum were best friends and soul mates who shared a life full of love and laughter, traveling together abroad, enjoying good food and friends, and cheering for UH’s basketball teams. As a testament to the many blessings in their lives, they chose to add to their philanthropic legacy through a gift in their estate plan, not only adding to their existing cancer research and endowed scholarship funds, but also creating three additional endowed scholarships. »
Hawaii Pacific Foundation invests in Native Hawaiian community through UH

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 lasting tribute to lifelong leaders

The Vernon and Yun Soong Jim Micropropagation Endowment will support the Lyon Arboretum’s micropropagation lab into the distant future. The couple’s three daughters agree this represents their parents’ values and respect for the work at the Mānoa arboretum. »
Art residencies at Mānoa will broaden horizons

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. »
Scholarship honors memory of urban planning professor and environmental policy expert

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. »
Family honors its Hilo roots

UH Hilo’s ʻImiloa Astronomy Center features an award-winning landscape offering a glimpse of Hawaiʻi’s pristine, native ecosystem as it once was. Now, to memorialize longtime Hilo residents Koon Leong and Bertha Chock, beneficiaries of the K. L. Chock Trust have made a gift for the continued care of the native garden, renamed the Koon Leong and Bertha Luke Chock Garden. “We sought a fitting way to express our gratitude for their contributions to their family and to the Hilo community,” says daughter Thelma Chock Nip. »
UH Hilo professor dedicates ag scholarship to late wife

The Margarita "Dayday" Hopkins Scholarship at UH Hilo’s College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management is dedicated to the memory of a remarkable woman who was Hawaiʻi County’s economic development specialist, responsible for its agriculture and natural resources programs. Dayday was also a lecturer in economics and ag business at UH Hilo, where her husband, retired professor Kevin Hopkins, also taught. »
Scholarship Stories: Leilani Carrero's law school journey

Leilani Carrero says her scholarship donors have not only made it possible for her to attend the UH Mānoa - William S. Richardson School of Law, they have broadened her outlook: “The mentors who provide these scholarships, they show you a world you didn’t know existed and they open doors and your eyes to these things.” » Watch video
More gifts and announcements
» HMSA’s $1M gift endows health economics professorship at UHERO
» Oak Foundation seeds innovative UH Hilo youth mentoring program
» UH breaks ground on RISE entrepreneurship, student housing facility
» First Hawaiian Bank Foundation, Dods give $500K to UH RISE project
» UH West Oʻahu accounting program receives $25K endowment
» JTB Goodwill Foundation endows KCC Culinary Scholarship Fund with $40K donation