Keaukaha General Store awards scholarship

Keaukaha General Store created its $1,000 Holomua Scholarship to encourage students to “Holomua,” or move forward, improve and progress.

As graduating high school seniors, it is important for them to look at issues in their communities and consider ways of helping and one day giving back.

Essays were submitted by high school seniors from Big Island high schools and no minimum GPA was required. Students were asked to write about what community they are from and if there was one positive change they could make, what would it be and why?

The winner of the 2016 Holomua Scholarship is ‘Iliana Godoy, a Kamehameha Schools-Hawaii graduate. Godoy wrote about the difficulties her community of Panaewa faces balancing traditional, native sentiments with the western thinking that the outside world desires.

She wrote about wanting to become a lawyer and supporting those in need of legal advice and assistance.

“The endeavor is not all that easy, and would probably take many years to accomplish, but I am not alone,” Godoy said. “While I am young, my home has instilled within me a strong love for land I was raised on, and I intend to protect it.”

Godoy plans to attend Dartmouth College in New Hampshire this fall.

For more information about the Holomua Scholarship, visit keaukahageneralstore.com.