2019 BIRMA scholarship awarded
The Big Island Retired Military Association presented its 2019 BIRMA-Mark Allen Traxler Memorial $2,000 scholarship award to Esaias Furtado, a Kealakehe High School graduate and one of 13 applicants for this year’s honor.
At Kealakehe, Furtado achieved high academic standing and was active in the school’s JROTC program, serving as battalion commander. He will attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa after undergoing U.S. Army enlisted training at Fort Benning, Ga.
BIRMA awards annual scholarships to Hawaii Island high school seniors who are relatives of a retired, active duty, reserve or National Guard member of the U.S. armed forces; are a current active member or veteran of any U.S. armed service, guard or reserve; and those who completed at least two years in a JROTC or Civil Air Patrol program at the time of application.
For more information, visit www.biretiredmilitary.org, contact your school counselor or call 935-1946.
Several students from Hilo named to Pacific University dean’s list
The following students from Hilo were named to the 2019 spring semester dean’s list at Pacific University in Oregon: Shavonne Demattos, Tina Gan, Alexia Iwamoto, Cecily Poai, Sam Rapoza, Tia Uehara and Bryce Yamashita. To qualify for the dean’s list, a student must achieve a term grade-point average of at least 3.70 and complete 12 or more graded hours.
Hilo Intermediate Science Olympiad places 4th at state tourney
Hilo Intermediate School’s Science Olympiad team competed in the Hawaii State Science Olympiad Tournament in April at Pearl City High School on Oahu. Students competed in 23 different events.
They spent a lot of time preparing after school and at home — studying, testing and designing their products, breaking and rebuilding along with team bonding.
The team received a THINK Fund grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation via Donorschoose.org that fully funded the travel for students and coaches. The funding was pivotal, as it put the team on an equal playing field, especially with the Oahu teams.
Hilo Intermediate received an overall fourth place out of 20 qualifying teams. Twelve of the 14 students received at least one medal, some two.