Ten Big Island students will attend Â鶹´«Ã½Hilo through the new Dorrance Scholarship Program.Ten Big Island students have become the first beneficiaries of a prestigious new scholarship program made possible by a groundbreaking partnership launched earlier this year between the and the Dorrance Family Foundation.
The Dorrance Scholarship is an innovative, four-year award designed to benefit local students who are the first in their family to attend college.
The 2012 UH Hilo Dorrance Scholarship recipients are:
- Kuliamai Aveiro-Kalaniopio of Kamuela (Kohala High School)
- Aprille Rose Cariaga of Naʻalehu (Kaʻu High School)
- Dylan Coffel of Pahoa (Pāhoa High School)
- Tamiah Johnson of Papaikou (Hilo High School)
- Kaiulani Kamau of Hilo (Kamehameha Schools)
- Clifford Kow, Jr. of Kailua Kona (Kealakehe High School)
- Kawehi Lopez of Hilo (Kamehameha Schools)
- Alayna Machacek of Kailua Kona (Kealakehe High School)
- Ishael Shaw-De Mello of Hilo (Waiākea High School)
- Edward Torrison of Hilo (Hilo High School)
The students will each receive $8,000 per year to attend UH Hilo. Awards are renewable for a total of eight semesters of funding, bringing the estimated total value of each award to more than $60,000 for the entire four-year period.
Prior to their freshman year, the students will participate in a custom-designed summer bridge program to help them transition from high school to college. In future summers, scholars will take part in international travel and employment preparation.
Dorrance Scholarship Programs
UH Hilo’s program is an extension of the highly successful that have operated in Arizona for the past 13 years and have been credited with opening the doors of higher education while boosting graduation rates for more than 400 first-generation college students at the state’s three public universities.
The Dorrance Scholarship addresses a critical need at UH Hilo, where some 70 percent of its 4,000-plus students are the first in their family to attend college. At the same time, 7 out of every 10 students depend on financial aid to fund the cost of attending college, which is the highest percentage among the 10 campuses in the UH System. That figure includes nearly 42 percent who qualify for Pell Grants, the federal aid reserved for students with the highest financial need.