Alakaʻina Foundation Donates $500K for UH Community College Students

The Alakaʻina Foundation, an organization that promotes Native Hawaiian leadership, recently donated $500,000 to establish the Alakaʻina Foundation UH Community College Technical Education Scholarship. The scholarship will be awarded to full-time and part-time undergraduate students pursuing a degree or certificate in vocational/technical education studies at any of the seven community colleges within the University of Hawaiʻi System.

Last year, the Alakaʻina foundation donated more than $250,000 to Kauaʻi Community College programs. These funds went to the Alakaʻina Foundation Engineering Scholarship for pre-engineering students transferring from Kauaʻi CC to UH Mānoa, the Kauaʻi CC Innovation Center, and the Kauaʻi CC Cognition Learning Center Fund.

“We are most grateful to the Alakaʻina Foundation for their ongoing partnership and generous support. Through their strategic philanthropy, they are helping build stronger communities by ensuring our residents can afford the education and training they need to succeed in the dynamic workforce of today,” University of Hawaiʻi vice president for community colleges John Morton said. “Hawaiʻi’s economic health depends on having a strong pool of well-trained employees ready to work.”

The Alakaʻina Foundation aims to ensure that students from kindergarten to grade 12 gain the skills necessary to become effective leaders.

“Alakaʻina in Hawaiian means ‘leadership,’ and our mission at the Alakaʻina Foundation is to build and promote leadership and education initiatives for nā pua o Hawaiʻi, or the youth of Hawaiʻi,” Philip Kahue, executive director of the Alakaʻina Foundation said. “Our goal is to develop a new generation of leaders, especially among those who live in rural areas, who have the aptitude, attitude and vision to lead our communities and our nation in the future. We are excited to partner with UH to help nurture this next generation.”

More information about the Alakaʻina Foundation is available online.