honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 7:04 a.m., Thursday, September 6, 2007

UH to boost financial aid available to Native Hawaiians

Advertiser Staff

University of Hawai'i President David McClain on Wednesday announced a $2.5 million Second Century Scholars program aimed at doubling need-based financial aid to Native Hawaiians to $5 million annually by 2010.

"This initiative will help to ensure that all Native Hawaiians with financial need will be able to attend UH, with an increased chance to successfully complete their studies," said McClain. "This is a step toward fulfilling the vision of our strategic plan; by 2010, many more Native Hawaiian children who aspire to be engineers or doctors or astronomers or marine biologists will know that they can pursue their dreams unfettered by financial restraints.

"This commitment acknowledges the fact that the remarkable scholarship for which our faculty are renowned occurs in this unique physical and geographic environment, on land first populated many centuries ago by the Native Hawaiians, and it acknowledges our role as stewards of these Hawaiian lands. It's most fitting that the first scholarship initiative of the university's second century be focused on the indigenous people of Hawaii."

The scholarship is available to Native Hawaiian students with demonstrated financial need pursuing both graduate and undergraduate credit work in any field of study on all 10 campuses of the University of Hawai'i system. Details and application procedures will be announced later in the fall semester, with the first awards scheduled to be made next spring for use in fall 2008.

Last year, 3,014 Native Hawaiian students applied for financial aid, and nearly 80 percent received some form of federal, state, UH, or UH Foundation grant or scholarship. The total value of UH aid provided was almost $2.5 million, including tuition waivers valued at some $870,000.