The cheerful clique of Catholic high school students greeting guests at the Augustine Educational Foundation’s annual donor appreciation reception Sept. 25 at the Halekulani Hotel’s Hau Terrace Lanai represented the life-changing potential of the scholarship-granting organization.
They were the PWH scholars, 16 students handpicked from public middle schools and given a remarkable opportunity — a full four-year scholarship to a Catholic high school that comes with a one-on-one academic coach, a counselor and a mentoring program.
These are “deserving” students for whom a Catholic school education would otherwise have been a financial impossibility, said Augustine Educational Foundation executive director Sue Ferandin. They attend Damien Memorial School, Sacred Hearts Academy and Saint Francis School.
The PWH Educational Foundation, the sponsor of these scholarships, was one of the contributors to Hawaii Catholic education highlighted by the Halekulani reception.
The PWH Scholars Program began in 2012 with a $1 million grant from the PWH Foundation to the Augustine Foundation. The PWH Foundation will continue annual grants until 2018.
Also recognized was Msgr. Terrence Watanabe, pastor of St. Theresa Parish in Kihei, who received the Augustine Foundation’s Glass Apple Award for his energetic support of Catholic schools on Maui.
According to Ferandin, the Maui monsignor was instrumental in creating the Maui Catholic Tuition Assistance Fund, which she said provides $2,000 to $3,000 a month to help children of Maui’s middle income Catholic families attend Catholic schools. Msgr. Watanabe’s parish continues to raise most of the money for the fund, she said.
“He is a friend of the foundation who needs to be recognized,” Ferandin said.
The event’s special speaker was Chantelle Enos, a second grade teacher at Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Pearl City who described her job as a “direct calling from God.”
Enos is a graduate from Our Lady Good Counsel, Saint Francis School in Honolulu, Chaminade University of Honolulu and the University of Scranton. She described teaching as a “great responsibility” that “does not stop at academics” but, through the passing on of faith and values, helps students “touch eternity.”
Bishop Larry Silva, chairman of the Augustine Educational Foundation, recognized Kamehameha Schools’ contribution of $1.32 million to the Kipona Scholarship Program which provides native Hawaiian students with a Catholic school education. He also acknowledged the late Gus and Anna Hochuli of the Big Island for their $1.1 million bequest that in September provided more than $42,000 in scholarships to St. Joseph Schools in Hilo.
The Augustine Foundation last month sent out more than 400 scholarship checks totaling about $641,000 in scholarships, “a record,” Fernandin said.
Since it was founded by the late Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario, the foundation has given more than 8,100 students tuition assistance amounting to more than $8 million.