Isle man giving
$1,300 to student
left adrift

This covers a second-
semester loan for a Kalaheo
grad denied her award

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

A Honolulu businessman is donating $1,300 to aid college student Melanie Fields, Kalaheo High School's 1998 valedictorian, who was among 51 students nationwide left adrift after a Houston company failed to honor its $10,000-a-year scholarships to them.

The donor, who requested his name not be published, said his daughter, Lisa Robinson, received a degree posthumously in 1994 from Chapman University in Orange, Calif., where Fields now attends and made the Dean's List last semester. The businessman said his daughter would have wanted him to help Fields.

"We're overwhelmed by his overly generous offer," Barbara Fields said of the donation, which would cover her daughter's second-semester student loan. "I think this is going to give Melanie (reason) to work even harder, in honor of Lisa."

The man contacted Fields' parents via the Star-Bulletin to offer financial help after reading about her in yesterday's editions.

The Associated Press reported that AdamsVision founder Val Adams insists he's trying to scrape up money to honor the scholarships, but John Boone of the Harris County district attorney's office says the students shouldn't count on it.

Last month, Melanie Fields received a copy of the Jan. 8 letter AdamsVision sent to Chapman University stating it was not financially capable of honoring the scholarship and apologizing for "any inconvenience this situation has caused you."

Fields, an aspiring film producer, is working 20 hours a week in Chapman's admissions office. Her parents have taken out a loan to pay her expenses.