By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai‘i — It could be said Aimee Cama has it all.
The Hilo High senior not only is student body president, homecoming queen and an honors student in science, she also is an outstanding athlete in cross country, hurdles and sprints. She is also the island’s second-best high school diver.
But life isn’t carefree for 18-year-old Cama. She worries about her father, who suffers from a congestive heart condition that has left him disabled. But the oldest of three children does not believe in allowing obstacles to cloud her future. They haven’t stopped her yet.
On April 4, she goes to Washington, D.C., to receive a $10,000 award from the Horatio Alger Association.
She is one of 105 winners nationally out of 50,000 nominees. She is Hawai‘i’s only selection.
"I was (pleasantly) shocked," she said, when she received notice in September she would be a 2001 winner. Cama had applied in May, submitting, among other items, a 500-word essay on how she has coped with her obstacles.
Alger (1834-1899) was a noted 19th-century American writer, journalist and minister whose books focused on underprivileged youths who excelled on merit rather than their circumstances of birth. His memory is retained by the 54-year-old association that has presented $2.4 million a year in scholarships since 1984.
Cama also recently won a $12,000 annual President’s Scholarship from University of Portland, a small Catholic school in Oregon where she will attend classes this fall as a biology major. It is renewable, if she can maintain a 3.8 average or better.
Cama is aiming at a career in medicine as either a pediatrician or a cardiologist.
"I’ve always loved science," said Cama, who added, "I enjoy being with people."
The soft-spoken Cama is the daughter of a Peace Corps volunteer, Suzanne, from Colorado. Her father, Sai, is a former native Fijian school teacher.
She has lived in Hilo since age 5 and believes she has succeeded because of her dad’s emphasis on athletics and academics and her mom’s interest in school achievement and community service. Her mother also is a biology teacher at Hilo High.
Cama denies the assertion that high achievers in Hawai‘i’s public schools struggle to socialize because having good grades would mean they are showing off.
How, she asked, would she have been elected homecoming queen had she not been comfortable with her peers? "I am not embarrassed by my grades," she said.
Her guidance counselor, Charlene Masuhara, said, "Aimee is a great credit to public education. She could achieve in almost any environment."
Her athletic director, Roy Kobayashi, said Cama is the kind of scholar-athlete who makes "coaches so proud."
She expects to miss her hometown over the next several years but says it will all pay off if she can return to practice medicine.
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