• Alana Grossman of Holualoa and Jade Lindsey of Honokaa joined the class of 2024 at the University of Utah.
• Biola University is excited to welcome Michaela Fromme of Hakalau to the Biola community as she starts her journey as an Eagle this fall. Students began classes Aug. 31.
• Luke Brilhante of Hilo is a member of the undergraduate class of 2024 at the University of Iowa.
• Waimea resident Ethan Souza, a Global Field Program student from Miami University’s Project Dragonfly, is participating in a new course with conservationists from around the world to launch a conservation campaign for positive ecological and social change. Miami’s Dragonfly team developed the course, “Earth Expeditions: Connected Conservation (EECC),” in response to the global health crisis and as an alternative to the summer Earth Expeditions travel field courses that take place in 15 countries around the world. Souza works as a field stewardship technician at Kohala Watershed Partnership in Waimea. Project Dragonfly’s Earth Expeditions graduate courses engage people in first-hand educational and scientific research at critical conservation field sites in Africa, Australia, Asia and the Americas.
• University of Hawaii at Hilo pharmacy student Henry Quach recently won the national American Pharmacists Association Patient Counseling competition. Quach competed against students from pharmacy schools throughout the country and will receive a plaque and $1,000 prize. The counseling competition is designed to encourage student pharmacists to develop their skills as health care providers and educators. The contest mimics a patient picking up medication for the first time and requires pharmacy students to counsel the patient about safe and effective drug use. This year’s final round involved the scenario of a mother picking up medication for her young son. Quach achieved some of his counseling skills working with the Pacific Island Mobile Screening Clinic, an organization manned by UH-Hilo pharmacy students to conduct health screenings and educate local residents about issues relating to chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. As this year’s national winner, Quach will return to help judge next year’s competition.
• Two students from home-school community Classical Conversations Hilo recently capped months of study by correctly reciting more than 400 facts from a multitude of subjects as part of the Classical Conversations Memory Master program. Brynne Harper, 11, and Caleigh Cook, 10, earned the Memory Master award in April when each spent about five hours recalling facts from six subjects, as well as a history timeline. Classical Conversations is an academic home-school group that follows the Classical Education model. Memory Master is a program available to all elementary-aged Classical Conversations participants nationwide.