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Photo Caption: L-R Professor Derrek Choy, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Judy Oliveira, AGA Hawaii’s Jennie Christman, Sean Nakamura, Shena Bocalbos, Raelynn Gaspar-Asaoka, Chancellor Maenette Benham, and professor Franklin Kudo

The popular accounting program at the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu received a boost from the AGA (Association of Government Accountants) Hawaiʻi Chapter, which gifted the program with a $25,000 endowment.

The endowment will provide scholarship support to students pursuing a degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting at UH West Oʻahu. Funds will be used for costs associated with attendance (e.g. tuition, books, fees, etc.).

“We are proud of our accounting program graduates as they have been successful in a myriad of careers from financial analyst to audit associate to account manager (and more) and across multiple sectors from the corporate to industry to education to corporate management to government to entrepreneur,” UH West Oʻahu Chancellor Maenette Benham said. “This generous gift supports students to pursue their career dreams.”

The accounting concentration has one of the highest enrollments of all UH West Oʻahu programs with nearly 10 percent of all students (300 majors).

“Looking at what is going on with West Oʻahu, with the rail and housing developments, we see it as untapped potential,” AGA Hawaiʻi President Sean Nakamura said. “We’re hoping this is the start of something that will expand.”

Nakamura noted that AGA Hawaiʻi currently has an endowment with UH Mānoa, but said that past president Pam Young “noticed that our younger, millennial members were graduates of UH West Oʻahu.”

This spurred the organization to pursue an opportunity to support UH West Oʻahu students as well.

“Hopefully we can touch lives in little ways,” Nakamura said.

Scholarship support is open to UH West Oʻahu students, full- or part-time, who are pursuing a degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting at the University of Hawai‘i-West O‘ahu and have a cumulative grade point average of 2.8 or above. Preference will be given to students who have worked or are committed to work for a federal, state, or local government agency as an accounting or auditing intern, or are interested in pursuing a career in government accounting as self-identified; past or present members of an accounting club at UH West O‘ahu; or current members of the Association of Government Accountants Hawai‘i Chapter.

“The generous endowment given  by the Association of Government Accountants will further strengthen the accounting program for UH West Oʻahu,” Business division chair Derrek Choy said. “This will help students that are in the accounting program furthering their education and career goals.”

AGA Hawaiʻi numbers about 160 members in Hawaiʻi who work for Federal and State of Hawaii agencies, City and County of Honolulu, international and local CPA firms, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations.

The endowment fund is the first of what Nakamura and AGA Hawaiʻi hope will be more collaboration in the future. AGA Hawaiʻi is planning a Talk Story event that bridges students with professionals in the workforce targeted for students at the Kapolei campus.

For information about ways to donate to UH West O’ahu please contact C. Kent Coarsey at 808-561-7837 or [email protected].

 

Image courtesy of UHWO Staff

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