{"id":216557,"date":"2025-05-22T18:11:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T04:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=216557"},"modified":"2025-05-22T18:17:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T04:17:00","slug":"takemetomanoa-scholarship-winner-surprised-by-news-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/22\/takemetomanoa-scholarship-winner-surprised-by-news-crew\/","title":{"rendered":"#TakeMeToM\u0101noa scholarship winner surprised by news crew"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Four
Lippert, Sugimoto, her parents<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the Moanalua High School senior class of 2025, Thursday, May 22, appeared to be another morning of rehearsal for their upcoming graduation ceremony. There was an additional surprise for one special student heading to the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n

\"Sugimoto<\/p>\n

Maiya Sugimoto entered the #TakeMeToM\u0101noa social media contest hosted by Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> News Now (HNN<\/abbr>). Out of the dozens of entries, Sugimoto was chosen to win a free year of tuition at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa, courtesy of UH<\/abbr> Federal Credit Union (UHFCU<\/abbr>). The online contest, which was open to incoming fall 2025 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> freshmen and transfer students, asked entrants to explain why UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa is the right college or how a year of free tuition could help them.<\/p>\n

Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> News Now reporter Casey Lund made the surprise announcement to the group of seniors. Sugimoto was visibly surprised when her name was called.<\/p>\n

“It’s still shocking to me, to be honest,” Sugimoto said. “I’d like to thank my family and friends for always supporting me, and especially my teachers.”<\/p>\n

\"Sugimoto<\/p>\n

Sugimoto was handed a giant check to commemorate the scholarship by UHFCU<\/abbr> Jason Lippert and covered in lei by her parents and UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Associate Director of Admissions Shauna Pimentel-Motooka.<\/p>\n

“We love this day,” UHFCU<\/abbr> Vice President of Member Experience Lippert said. “UHFCU<\/abbr> is happy to support our students and truly being at this scholarship event each year is one of the best moments we participate in. Maiya had such a great video explaining why she is going to UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa. We can\u2019t wait to see what she will accomplish.”<\/p>\n

“Maiya\u2019s video really captured our hearts and definitely showed the kind of students we hope to attract,” Pimentel-Motooka said. “She is so motivated. We look forward to her joining our UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa ʻohana.”<\/p>\n

Sugimoto also recently earned her associates degree in liberal arts from Honolulu Community College\u2019s Early College program before she earned her high school diploma.<\/p>\n

“I’m gonna be studying business marketing and digital design, so I’ll double major in the two,” Sugimoto said of her journey continuing at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n

UHFCU<\/abbr> has sponsored the #TakeMeToM\u0101noa contest for seven years, surprising recipients with HNN<\/abbr> since 2018. Read more about previous winners<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Out of the dozens of entries, Moanalua High School’s Maiya Sugimoto was chosen to win a free year of tuition at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa, courtesy of UH<\/abbr> Federal Credit Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1588,1466,9],"class_list":["post-216557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-takemetomanoa","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216557","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=216557"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216572,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216557\/revisions\/216572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}