The Big Island Press Club awarded scholarships totaling $5,000 to four students this year, with each winner receiving $1,250 to pursue a higher education in journalism or a related field.
The Big Island Press Club is Hawai‘i’s oldest press club, protecting the public’s right to know since 1967.
The recipients are:
- Lichen Forster, of Mountain View, is a geology major at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and has been editor in chief of the student newspaper, Ke Kalahea, for the past three semesters. Forster, who’s majoring in geology, wants to pursue a career in science journalism. Forster plans to be an exchange student at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand for the fall semester, while continuing their newspaper work as copy editor. This is their third Big Island Press Club award.
- Maya-Lin Green, of Waimea, is a 2008 graduate of Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a communications and media journalism major at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Green joined Ke Kalahea as a staff writer in the spring semester. She plans a career in public relations, writing or a related field.
- Kai Hayashida, a Hilo High 2023 graduate from Hilo, plans to major in journalism and will attend Whitworth University, in Spokane, Washington, this fall. Hayashida called Hilo High School athletic contests on its Hiki No video media platform KVIKS.
- King James Mangoba, of Papaaloa, is a 2023 graduate of Hilo High School who plans to major in communications. Mangoba will attend Fordham University in New York City. Mangoba participated as a part of the crew to produce a story video for PBS Hawaii’s Hiki No program, an activity that whetted his interest in television journalism.
Awarding scholarships to promote journalism is an annual event and one of the primary projects of the press club.
Generous gifts from several Big Island Press Club members along with an annual donation from the family of Bill Arballo, have supplemented funds previously donated by the families of Hugh Clark, Robert Miller, Jack Markey and Yukino Fukabori.
Bill Arballo was a founding a member of Big Island Press Club in 1967 and its first president. Arballo died in 2016.
Hugh Clark wrote about crime, politics, sports and volcanic eruptions for the Honolulu Advertiser and the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. Clark died in 2015.
Robert Miller was a UPI reporter whose 1968 speech to BIPC inspired Ouida Hill, wife of state Sen. W.H. “Doc” Hill, to donate $1,000 to start the Miller Scholarship. Miller died in 2004.
The late Jack Markey was a visible street-side fixture in Hilo. He recruited new members for the press club and was instrumental in building the Big Island Press Club scholarship endowment.
Noteworthy for reporting “hard news” for the Hawaii Tribune-Herald as early as the 1930s when women reporters were generally on the society page, Yukino Fukabori, who later taught news writing at Hilo High School funded a scholarship in 1993. She died in 1995.
The Big Island Press Club holds events throughout the year for its members and the public to get to know each other and various newsmakers. In addition to the marquis scholarship dinner in which scholarships are awarded, the Big Island Press Club also holds an awards ceremony at the end of the year to award its meritorious Torch of Light award.
Tickets for that event, which will be held Dec. 2, in Waikoloa Village, will be available for sale on the press club website later this fall. The website also provides information for people interested in joining the club or making a tax-deductible donation to the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Big Island Press Club Scholarship Foundation at bigislandpressclub.org.