The East Hawaii Hiroshima Kenjin Kai presented two $1,000 scholarships to Waiakea High school senior Meghan M.B.Y. Nagai and Hilo High School senior Kara Yoshiyama for their excellence in academic, co-curricular and extracurricular achievements.
The EHHKK scholarship awards were presented to Nagai and Yoshiyama at their respective high school senior awards ceremonies in May.
Meghan Nagai, a valedictorian of the Waiakea High School senior class of 2019, is pursuing a marketing and advertising career. Her custom-made design was selected as the cover of Waiakea High School’s 2019-2020 catalog of courses.
Nagai was involved in and has held leadership positions in the WHS Class and Student Government, Interact Club, Japanese Club and the Distributive Education Clubs of America. She served as DECA vice president for the 2017-2018 school year and as president for the 2018-2019 year.
Nagai is the daughter of EHHKK members Sylvia and Michael Nagai and plans to attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa Shidler College of Business in the fall to major in marketing, and she also hopes to earn a master’s degree in business marketing.
Community service is a passion for Hilo High School senior Kara Yoshiyama, who has given back to her school and community by serving as an active Key Club member, holding leadership positions such as club historian, club board of director, Division 22 Makai lieutenant governor, and becoming the first California-Nevada-Hawaii District treasurer from Hawaii.
Yoshiyama has earned over 600 volunteer service hours with the Hilo High Key Club. Yoshiyama also served as the Hawaii State Student Council first vice president, which led to the position of historian and then to being chairperson during her senior year. She successfully led a Department of Education legislative learning conference for student representatives from every public high school in the state, which included creating a bill requiring community service hours for all public high school students that was introduced at the state Legislature.
Yoshiyama is the daughter of Joanne and Lance Yoshiyama and will attend Pacific University in Oregon in the fall to pursue a doctor of optometry degree.
These educational scholarships are given by the EHHKK to eligible children and grandchildren of East Hawaii Hiroshima Kenjin Kai members.