Sarah Rosenberg Memorial Foundation Scholarship awardees announced
The Kealakehe High School SCC Sarah Rosenburg Memorial Foundation Scholarship has announced the scholarship winners for 2017-2018. The awardees are: “Most Outstanding (Kupono) Waverider” – first place winner: Hope Kudo ($3,500); second place winner: Eva Garces ($3,000) and “Most Charitable (Lokomaika’i) Waverider” – first place winner: Maya Gee ($3,500); second place winner: Sarah Chang ($3,000). Based on placing first in their category in this scholarship, both Hope and Maya delivered the main speeches for the class of 2018 Kealakehe High School graduation.
Kudo is attending Harvard University and is pursuing a double major in government/public policy and environmental science with a minor in Arabic while Garces will attend Yale University and will major in both mathematics and English with a concentration in music. Gee is pursuing a degree in political science with a minor in education studies from Middlebury College in Vermont and Chang will attend Wheaton College in Illinois where she will pursue a nursing degree.
In 2000, the Kealakehe High School Community Council established four scholarships that support Kealakehe’s vision and mission of providing students with a quality education while also graduating young adults who are well-rounded, skilled, hard-working and willing to give back to their families, their community and the world.
In 2005, the scholarships were re-named the Kealakehe High SCC Sarah Rosenberg Memorial Foundation Scholarships. Sarah Rosenberg was a successful student-athlete and civic leader at Kealakehe High School from Aug. 2001 until she was killed by a traffic accident mid-way through her senior year (Dec. 2004). Over the course of her high school career, Sarah came to embody the highest qualities of a Kealakehe High School Waverider: a student who builds and cherishes strong relationships, earns and shows respect toward all people and willingly fulfills all of their responsibilities. These scholarships came to bear her name as a means of capturing her spirit and to serve as an inspiration for all future Waveriders. After Sarah’s death, a fund was established through the Hawaii Community Foundation so that the scholarships would be perpetual.
Since Kealakehe’s first graduation in 2001, there have been 84 awardees who have earned a total of $145,500 which they have used to support their post-secondary education.