Gather FCU awards $10,000 in scholarships

LIHUE — Ten students were presented $1000 scholarships by the Gather Federal Credit Union, last Thursday before an audience of Gather FCU staff, parents and family members of the scholarship recipients.

“This is a very special time of year when Gather FCU takes pride in giving back to the community in the form of scholarships to a well-deserving group of high school seniors,” said Tess Shimabukuro, the Gather FCU president and CEO. “Today, we wish them all the best as our young leaders of tomorrow.”

To be eligible for consideration, applicant students need to be a member of the credit union, and were judged on academic merit, community service, credit union relationship, and financial need.

Debbie Higuchi, Michael Depoe, and Sandy Magnussen of the Gather FCU Scholarship Committee had the task of reviewing the 43 applicants who met the criteria for scholarship consideration.

The Gather FCU Your Choice Scholarship recipients include Maceo Cantu and Juliana Tampus who graduated from Kapaa High School; Cheyann Fujii, Mayumi Fulgencio, Isabel Gampon, and Kelli Okayama who marched in the Kauai High School graduation; Samantha Bostick, Wendee Miguel, and Cade Tanaka who are from the Waimea High School Class of 2019. Jaedyn Pavao was the sole graduate from Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama.

This is the 14th year that Gather FCU has been awarding scholarships to high school seniors.

Gather Federal Credit Union, through its sixty-five year community charter, has the potential to serve all of the residents of Kauai and Niihau. Gather FCU is a $520 million financial institution that serves more than 35,200 members and operates five branch offices throughout Kauai in Waimea, Lihue, Kapaa, Eleele and Kukui Grove.