Scholarship

The Ka’u Chamber of Commerce is pleased to help Ka’u students and adults through our annual scholarship program. The Ken Wicks Ka’u Chamber of Commerce Scholarship has expanded to include not only high school seniors, but also adults seeking to re-enter the educational system. Applicants are asked to write an essay about how their educational experience will benefit Ka’u. Preference will be given to those who intend to remain in or return to Ka’u and live there. Scholarship money can be used for all college and vocational training and will range from $250-$1,000. Need will also be considered. Scholarship renewal is also possible and encouraged.

We are now accepting applications.

High school students, please click here to download the application as a Microsoft Word document.

Returning applicants, college students, and adults continuing their education, please click here to download the application as a Microsoft Word document.

The deadline is May 1, 2016.

Recipients for 2014:

• Tyler Amaral

• Kayla Andrade

• Chazlyn Fuerte Castaneda

• Benjamin Houghton

• Kamrie Koi

• Anjulie Larson

• Jennifer Kau’i Losalio

• Maria Miranda

• Marley Strand-Nicolaisen

• Siena Okimoto

• Tiare-Lee Shibuya

The winner for our essay contest: “How will your education benefit the District of Ka’u?”

Tiare-Lee Shibuya

Smile in The Face of Fear

I could smell hand sanitizer and a minced smell of coffee. The air was very still with a musty fringe. This was definitely in a hospital and I was in the waiting room. As I look around I see many faces of despair, sorrow, and wariness. I sit patiently awaiting the news of my grandfather with a serious concerned face. I have contemplated over and over in my mind of what the different scenarios could be, but I didn’t see this one coming. My grandfather Clarence Abraham Andrade has just been diagnosed with lung cancer said to be the size of an orange. I was completely speechless and my tear ducts filled.

Cautiously, we make sure to smile and show no concern of death in our faces as I greet my grandfather in the hospital bed. My family and I sat listening to his minimal options he had and watch as he decides what he wants to do. He decides that life is not over for him yet and he wants to fight this cancer away. So in a span of two years, he fought his hardest with all his might and never complained of any pain. We all right there standing next to him every step of the way. We would take him to his radiation chemo therapy and he would be the guy making jokes about the chemo not affecting his hair because he was already bald. This is the exact moment where I knew exactly what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it and where I wanted to do it.

Consequently, my goal was to always be a Registered Nurse and graduate with my BSN degree. Now, I can say I want to be an Oncology RN and eventually expand the Ka’u Hospital branch to have its own oncology department. Just take a second and think of all the possibilities and the many lives that can be saved. According to the Cancer Journal for Clinicians in 2014 there have been 1,340,400 deaths from cancer this year and we are only in April. I could help so many families in the district I love called Ka’u. It would be the only way I feel accomplished by having and supporting the district’s needs health wise.

Similarly, I would be able to relate to the patients on a deeper level because I have been there. I have not personally experienced cancer but I have been a family member to experience it four times. My grandfather had lung cancer and his wife had a tumor in her breast. My other grandparents my grandfather had kidney cancer and my grandmother had colon cancer. I know that the family would want the best available help and I would be right there by their side coaching them on what to expect but also keeping that hope alive because a cancer patient wants their family and to be loved during this tragic time.

Finally, I would like to be a registered nurse and help my community have the strongest oncology system it could have. There are many lives to be saved and I feel that I was set here to help cancer patients. I will provide the best service and a caring support system. I would like to bring smiles in the face of fear for all those people. It would be such an honor to devote myself to my community and to keep everyone healthy.

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Past recipients:

• 2013
• 2012
• 2011