Onward, upward
for Sterling Scholars
The prestigious high school award's
By Mary Adamski
tradition of excellence carries into adulthood
Star-BulletinKailua High School alumna Laurie Bush worked on the Grammy awards program this year as assistant to the president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in New York. Hilo High School graduate Todd Horiuchi is in his final year of residency at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, a physician specializing in critical respiratory care.
Jessica Sawyer from Iolani School has been studying at the Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, and has shown her sculptures in New York art galleries.
They were members of the Class of 1987 in island high schools, but with a special twist. Each was a Sterling Scholar, a winner in the state's most prestigious and comprehensive scholarship program.
The awards program, which was started 10 years ago by the Polynesian Cultural Center in cooperation with the Department of Education and the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, presented $1,000 college scholarships to the top winners in 12 fields of study, and $500 grants to 24 runners-up.
This year, 65 Sterling Scholars will share a record $112,000 in cash scholarships. The first-place winners in 12 subject categories will receive $4,000 awards and one top general scholarship winner will be awarded $8,000. Second and third places in each category will receive $2,000 and $1,000, and general scholarship runners-up will get $4,000 and $2,000.
At the very least, each finalist will receive a $500 U.S. Savings Bond.
"It was an accomplishment for me; it did help," said Lisa Hashimoto of Honolulu, now a pharmacist with Longs Drug Store in Wahiawa. "It helped me knowing I could set my goals for education."
Hashimoto was one of the 1987 Sterling Scholars. A Baldwin High School graduate, she won in the homemaking category, a reflection of her childhood involvement in 4-H activities, she said. She received a bachelor's degree in nutrition from the University of Hawaii and a doctor of pharmacy degree from University of the Pacific.
The winners, then as now, are judged not only on their academic accomplishments but also on their involvement in activities that reflect leadership and citizenship, and on their performance in an interview with the judges.
Hawaii schools nominate candidates for the award, no more than one for each category. Hawaiian studies was recently added to the established categories: business education, English, family and consumer sciences (formerly homemaking), foreign language, industrial arts, mathematics, music, science, social science, speech/drama and visual arts and general scholarship.
This year there are 293 nominees from 33 public schools and 18 private schools statewide.
Judging begins May 22.
Title sponsors include the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, First Hawaiian Bank, DFS Hawaii and NBC Hawaii News 8, as well as the Polynesian Cultural Center in cooperation with the Department of Education and Hawaii Association of Independent Schools.
There are 13 supporting sponsors.
Sterling students
What: Sterling Scholar Awards
