Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 7, 1 July 2008 — Graduates earn high honors [ARTICLE]

Graduates earn high honors

Along with eye-level layers of lei, graduation 2008 has brought special honors to several outstanding students of Native Hawaiian ancestry. Kamehameha

Schools valedictorian Nathan Nakatsuka will be attending Harvard University with the help of a $20,000 Nahonal Coca-Cola Scholarship and a $13,000 award from the National Honor Society Scholarship Program. Nakatsuka will be heading this sununer to the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, where he will undertake a coveted research internship in molecular biology. Nakatsuka credits his parents for motivating his academic achievements. See BRIEFS on page 2G

BRIEFS Cūntinued fram page 25

Ciera Cummings, also a 2008 Kamehameha Schools graduate, received a tribute in Washington, D.C., in lune, after being selected as one of Hawai'i's 2008 Presidential Scholars. She joined 138 outstanding graduating high school seniors from across the country in being honored for academic achievement in a White House-sponsored event. Cummings, who plans to attend Mills College in Oakland, Cahfomia, credited 'ohana for helping her achieve academic excellence. Marcus Kawika Iwane, a sec-ond-year student at the John A. Bums School of Medicine, is this year's recipient of the Minority Scholars Award from the American Medical Association. This marks the frrst time a Native Hawaiian has received the $10,000 accolade, whieh is aimed at recognizing the scholastic achievement of medical students from historically underrepresented groups within the medical profession. In addition to the influenee of family members, Iwane named Moloka'i's Dr. Emmet Aluli as one of his mentors.