A generous and singular gift
We are extremely pleased to tell you about a new scholarship at our University of Hawaii Maui College Nursing Program that is already impacting about 60 students and will continue to make an enormous difference in the lives of our future nursing students. It is funded by an extraordinary gift of $500,000, part of an even larger gift from an anonymous donor. Because of the donor’s passion for conservation and creating a healthy environment for the future, the gift has very ambitious and broad goals to really make a difference and touches several programs that work to save plants and birds throughout Hawai‘i and, in particular, on Maui. Our nursing program is included in the $2.5 million gift because the donor sees nursing as a vital component of a healthy environment for the entire community. Another extraordinary aspect of the gift is that, as Nursing Professor Anne Scharnhorst (DNP, RN, CNE) explains, “it was a complete surprise, 100 percent, it came out of nowhere as one giant blessing.”
Just think back for a moment over the last two years. What would Maui Nui have done through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic without our dedicated and tireless nurses? Our 2020 nursing graduates were on the community front lines from the very beginning. Our student nurses volunteered at numerous vaccination clinics. And how proud we are to say that many of the veteran nurses in our community are also graduates of our nursing program.
This incredible gift is given in memory of — and the scholarship is named for — Harold St. John, a name with which many of you are probably not familiar.
Born in Pittsburgh and educated at Harvard, St. John was an eminent field biologist who traveled the world studying rare plants and collecting specimens for UH Manoa and the Bishop Museum. He journeyed to the tops of mountains to catalog plant life and traveled across the ocean on several expeditions to study South Pacific flora.
He turned a 1946 grant to research pandanus in Micronesia into a 20-year project studying the plant commonly known as hala, in Australia, Asia, Africa and islands in the Indian Ocean, according to a front-page newspaper story in 1989 marking his 97th birthday. His research into pandanus resulted in the discovery of more than 500 new species.
St. John came to Hawai‘i to teach at UH in 1929. He served as chairman of the botany department several times over the years before he retired in 1959. He continued to work in Bishop Museum’s botany department until he was well into his 90s. He died in 1991 at the age of 99 and his life’s work continues today by researchers at the School of Life Sciences of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, College of Natural Sciences.
And now, an anonymous admirer of St. John’s is ensuring that his legacy lives on right here at our college, as well, by taking a holistic approach to environmental and community health. We are so grateful to this amazing donor who recognizes the critical importance of preserving the health of our environment and for educating the next generation of nurses who help to preserve the health of our people.
Most grateful of all are our nursing faculty and our students. Mary Farmer (MSN, RN) is our Allied Health Department chairwoman. “The St. John Scholarship is a tremendous gift to our nursing students. It provides financial relief and demonstrates that our community cares about them as much as they care about our community,” she says. And Scharnhorst adds, “Coming on the heels of COVID and in the context of the inflation we’ve all been experiencing, it makes such a difference. We have many students who have families or who contribute financially to their families.”
“I am grateful for the St. John Scholarship. It has greatly helped relieve the financial burden allowing me to focus on my education,” says student Jaela Naha. That sentiment is echoed by the rest of our nursing students. For some, it made the difference between being able to attend college or wondering how they could ever fund their nursing education. They — and we — call it an “absolute blessing.”
If you would like to know more about how you can help our college and our students with a gift large or small, please visit https://www.uh foundation.org/ For complete information about UHMC, please visit http://maui.hawaii .edu/
Dr. Lui K. Hokoana is Chancellor of the University of Hawai‘i Maui College. Ka‘ana Mana‘o, which means “sharing thoughts,” is scheduled to appear on the fourth Saturday of each month. It is prepared with assistance from UH-Maui College staff and is intended to provide the community of Maui County information about opportunities available through the college at its Kahului campus and its education centers.