The Big Island Press Club Scholarship Foundation awarded 2024 college scholarships totaling $7,000 to six students dedicated to pursuing education for journalism or a related field.
Acknowledged at the annual Big Island Press Club Scholarship Foundation awards dinner held May 9, the winners are Waiakea High School senior Mari Iwata, Hilo High School senior Emily Wagner, Ohio University student Megan Moseley, Whitworth University’s Kai Hayashida and University of Hawaii at Hilo students Lichen Forster and David Mayser.
The event’s guest speakers were Honolulu Civil Beat journalists Kevin Dayton, a Big Island-based investigative reporter, and Chad Blair, Honolulu politics editor. Blair spoke on the current state of the media and felt that Civil Beat’s nonprofit, no-paywall model is working.
Civil Beat, the 13-year-old digital news platform, was named a 2023 finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in the breaking news category. The news outlet was founded by Omidyar Group philanthropist Pierre Omidyar, who founded eBay in 1995.
Mari Iwata received the $1,000 Omidyar Group scholarship.
“To me, it is an honor to be awarded with the Press Club journalism scholarship, Because it not only acknowledges the hard work I’ve put in but also acknowledges that other people see my potential,” Iwata said. “It’s motivating knowing that it’s more than just my parents encouraging my career, but professionals in the field.”
Kai Hayashida, who’s studying to be a sports broadcaster, won the $1,500 Hugh Clark scholarship. Clark was known as a “newspaperman’s newspaperman” and was inducted into the UH-Hilo Athletic Hall of Fame. Hayashida said “It’s a huge honor to win this scholarship so I can continue to pursue my dream job as a sports broadcaster.”
Lichen Forster won the $1,500 Bill Arballo Memorial Scholarship. Arballo was a founding a member of Big Island Press Club in 1967, its first president, and a World War II Silver Star and Purple Heart medal recipient as a medic in Italy.
The Robert C. Miller scholarship for $1,000, named in honor of the deceased Hilo-based UPI reporter, went to Emily Wagner. Miller’s 1968 Press Club speech motivated Ouida Hill, wife of then-state Sen. W.H. “Doc” Hill, to donate $1,000 to start the journalism scholarship program.
David Mayser received the Jack Markey award for $1,000. The late Jack Markey was a visible fixture in Hilo. With poor vision and unable to drive a car, Markey walked and hitchhiked around Hilo town selling radio advertising. He recruited members for BIPC and was instrumental in building the BIPC scholarship endowment.
“Being awarded with a BIPC scholarship is a big honor,” said Mayser, who was UH-Hilo’s 2024 spring commencement speaker. “Journalism plays a huge role in our society. As we go through a lot of uncertainty and challenges, I believe that journalism has the profound power to share information and knowledge.”
Ohio University student Megan Moseley won the $1,000 Yukino Fukabori award. Noteworthy as early as the 1930s for reporting “hard news” and not society page gossip, Fukabori wrote for the Hawaii Tribune-Herald and later taught news writing at Hilo High School. She funded a scholarship in 1993 and died in 1995.
Moseley, a writer for the Big Island Now web news outlet, noted, “Winning the Big Island Press Club Scholarship means the world to me. Feeling supported by my peers who I have the upmost respect for and being able to continue my education while pursuing journalism here in Hawaii is a dream come true.”
This year’s scholarship amount was a record. The increase is thanks to the Bill Arballo Memorial Fund, the Omidyar Group and Big Island Press Club Scholarship Foundation, 2023 Torch of Light auction donors, including Fairmont Orchid, Rosewood Kona Village, Four Seasons Hualalai, Royal Kona Resort, Auberge Mauna Lani, Nathan Gaddis and others.
The BIPC Scholarship committee for 2024 were Tiffany Edwards Hunt, Robert Duerr, Royelen Boykie and John Burnett.