As Foodland’s celebrates its 65th anniversary, we are proud to remain a local company, deeply committed to our customers and dedicated to making Hawaii a better place. One way we know we can do this is by supporting Hawaii’s seniors in their pursuit of higher education. We are grateful to be in a state where the community – our customers, our vendors, the students, the schools’ college and career counselors and faculty – all take an active part in supporting Foodland’s Shop for Higher Education program.
This past Saturday, May 11th, we hosted our annual awards banquet to recognize and honor our 2013 scholarship recipients. Caitlin Kelly, a 2012 scholarship recipient, delivered a speech about her first year college experience. She shared how she went into college at the University of Hawaii at Manoa as journalism major and was dead set on becoming a reporter at a newspaper. Instead, writing an article about professional counselors strengthened her interest in psychology. That experience further led her to apply for an exchange program at a mainland university, where she’ll be attending in the Fall. Caitlin went on to say how the “twists and turns” of her college experience is what ultimately pushed her to become the person she was made to be. She closed her speech saying, “Receiving the Foodland scholarship meant that I was free to challenge myself both academically and personally because I didn’t have to worry constantly about making ends meet. My family and I are so grateful for Foodland’s generosity and for their desire to support higher education.”
This year marks the 8th year of this program. Since the program’s inception in 2006, Foodland has awarded $2,000 scholarships to a total of 866 students– a total of $1,732,0000.00 in scholarships!
We congratulate our 111 2013 scholarship recipients, who will each receive a $2,000 scholarship. Like Caitlin, we know that college will lead them to things they expect, but also to wonderful life opportunities that they are least expecting. We wish them all the best as they begin this new chapter in their lives.
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