{"id":116217,"date":"2020-04-21T14:02:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T00:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=116217"},"modified":"2020-10-16T10:07:25","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T20:07:25","slug":"student-relief-fund-wong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/04\/21\/student-relief-fund-wong\/","title":{"rendered":"Student relief: Math major calculates how to make ends meet"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_116475\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-116475\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/student-relief-wong-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-116475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/student-relief-wong-1.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/student-relief-wong-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/student-relief-wong-1-130x87.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-116475\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pono Wong<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Adjusting to French 101 online during the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s historic move to distance learning is just a fraction of the struggle for <strong>Pono Wong<\/strong> these days. The <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\"><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa<\/a> student has dreams of becoming a high school math teacher and looks forward to graduation in 2021. But completing his college education has been hindered by financial setbacks. Wong\u2019s hours as a student tutor at <a href=\"https:\/\/windward.hawaii.edu\/\">Windward Community College<\/a> were drastically cut back after COVID-19 precautionary measures were put into place.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Rent is usually the problem. Our rent is $1,200. Sometimes we can make it to the end of the month. Sometimes we have to ask for help,&rdquo; he explained.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_116265\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-116265\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/manoa-relief-wong-3.jpg\" alt=\"wong and family\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"size-full wp-image-116265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/manoa-relief-wong-3.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/manoa-relief-wong-3-130x130.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-116265\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pono Wong with his <span aria-label=\"ohana\">&#699;ohana<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhfoundation.org\/give\/giving-opportunity\/covid-19\">Support the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Student Relief fund and COVID-19 research<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa math major supports his parents and siblings in their two-bedroom apartment. He recently became the sole income provider after a life-threatening infection kept Wong\u2019s dad from work the past several months. His tax returns have already been drained to mainly pay for rent.<\/p>\n<p>Wong is still working for Windward <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/catalog.windward.hawaii.edu\/trio-student-support-services\">TRiO Student Support Services<\/a> but tutors strictly online. &ldquo;I love my job. I love my students. They keep me motivated. They keep me on top of my game. It\u2019s really funny, people say home is an escape. Work is my escape,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<h2><abbr>UH<\/abbr> students in need of k\u014dkua<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>A lot of my friends physically cried because they now had enough money to eat. Enough money to go on. <br \/>&#8212;Pono Wong<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Luckily, Wong is one of hundreds of <abbr>UH<\/abbr> students who have received assistance so far from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhfoundation.org\/give\/giving-opportunity\/covid-19\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Urgent Student Relief Fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As of April 15, a fundraising campaign launched by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhfoundation.org\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Foundation<\/a> in partnership with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/04\/15\/1m-urgent-student-relief-fund\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> raised $1 million to benefit students facing financial hardships<\/a> from all 10 <abbr>UH<\/abbr> campuses.<\/p>\n<p>Wong wants donors to know how much of an impact their contribution has on students. &ldquo;A lot of my friends physically cried because they now had enough money to eat. Enough money to go on,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhfoundation.org\/give\/giving-opportunity\/covid-19\">Learn more and make a gift.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By <span aria-label=\"Moanikeala\">Moanike&#699;ala<\/span> Nabarro<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <em><abbr>UH<\/abbr> News<\/em> stories about the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Urgent Student Relief Fund and the students impacted:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/31\/apply-uh-urgent-student-relief\/\">How to apply for the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Urgent Student Relief Fund<\/a>, March 31, 2020<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/04\/07\/uh-student-relief-fund-santos\/\">Great grandmother needs urgent relief for extended family<\/a>, April 7, 2020<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/04\/13\/student-relief-bruce-white\/\">Student relief: Architecture student left everything in China, needs help<\/a>, April 13, 2020<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa student is struggling to financially stay afloat after hours at his on-campus job were drastically cut back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1411,1416,554,1453,319,9,66],"class_list":["post-116217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-uh-helps","tag-mathematics","tag-trio-student-success-services","tag-uh-foundation","tag-uh-manoa","tag-windward-community-college","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116217"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124460,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116217\/revisions\/124460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}