Taking Notice
Scholastic Honors
The Hawaii School Counselor Association awarded James Hiramoto, vice principal at Mililani Uka Elementary School, with the Counselor Advocate of the Year award; and Antoinette Gopaul, counselor at Sacred Hearts Academy, with the school counselor of the year award.
Dr. Valentina Abordonado, assistant professor of English at Hawaii Pacific University, was awarded HPU's 2000 Trustees' Award for Excellence in Teaching.
John Ahn of Mililani High School is one of 350 national scholars across the country who has been selected to attend The National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C.
Nanakuli High and Intermediate School Drama Club students received several awards at the Honolulu Theater for Youth and Hawaii State Theater Council's Theater Olympics. Winners are: Nikita Mendonca and Tiarae Gututala, first place in the intermediate one act play and overall winners; Chelsee Smith, Angie Farias and Chantel Akoni, first place in the high school one act play; Nikita Mendonca, first place in intermediate solo musical theater; Bobbie Villamor, first place in high school solo musical theater; and Justine Batalona and Chantel Akoni, second place in duet acting. These students go on to the State Theater Olympics held in Nebraska.
The Hawaii Council for the Humanities awarded Outstanding Teaching Awards to Rudy Sina of Waimea High School, Laurie Watanabe of Castle High School and Sandra Cruz, recent retiree of Pearl City High School, for their support of the council's Hawaii History Day program.
Shana Yamashita of Aina Haina School won second-place for her region in the 2000 Craftsman/NSTA Young Inventors Awards Program. Yamashita invented "Shana's Sharpstix," which are chopsticks with an edge sharp enough to cut food, but not harm the diner.
The Friends of the Medical School presented Rick Y. Hayashi the Po'okela No'eau Award and David R. Coon the Po'okela Noi'i Award. Hayashi and Coon are graduates of University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine.
Hawaii Preparatory Academy awarded the following Upper School students: Dana Egusa and Hannah Hind, Alumni Association Award; Ryan Gleed and Mahealani Crossley, John L. Pricher Award; Chris Price-White, Holi Bergin Memorial Scholarship Award; Serena Yang, Andy Ackerman Art Prize; Bryan Spencer and Ana Yarawamai, Academy Art Prize; Tom Sanford and Marya Hicks, Musical Theatre Award; Kotaro Kawashima, Drama Prize and Performing Arts Achievement Award; Micah Pueschel, Music Award; Sofia Jensen, Excellence in English Award; Chloe Ota, Mount Holyoke College Award; Francis Ross and Chelsea Wallis, Paul Knopf Award; Ryan Garcia, Journalism Award; Jamie Worth, Yearbook Award; Jung In Park, Algebra I Prize; Jesse Melrose, Algebra II/Trigonometry Prize; Paul Liu, Geometry Prize; Peter Chen, Introductory Calculus and Physics awards; Joshua Bassan, James Rizzuto Calculus Award; Alexander Aehegma, Miles Walsh History Prize; Trenton McManus, Ben Dillingham History and Political Science Prize and the Science Prize; Dan Lathrop, Joseph Martire Biology Prize; Joseph Wilson, Alan Fujimoto Chemistry Prize; Katie Harrington, Bausch & Lomb Junior Science Scholar; Megumi Ohsumi, French Prize; David Clarkson, Spanish Prize; Mannie Won and Bob Webb, Japanese Prize; IES Class, IES Achievement Award; Nick Daniel, Computer Service Award; David Clarkson, Computer Science Award; Dan Walker, Audio Visual Prize; Tom Sanford and Ana Yarawamai, Scholar-Athlete Award; and Highest Class Standing recipients, Mikela Yarawamai, Grade 9, Ginger Roberts and Malia Magers, Grade 10, and Megumi Ohsumi, Grade 11.
Sacred Hearts Academy teacher Joe Gardewin was selected from a national pool to attend "The Great Plains from Texas to Saskatchewan: Questions of Place and Identity," a five-week program at North Dakota State University.
On the job...
Alison Kiyotoki, a mortgage loan specialist for Finance Factors Ltd., was promoted to business development manager. She will be responsible for building relationships with Realtors and keeping them informed about residential mortgage loan products, pricing and delivery options.
John P. Quinn has rejoined the Honolulu office of Arthur Andersen as an experienced manager in the Audit and Business Advisory Services division. He started working with the company's Philadelphia office in 1989.
