UH MANOA ILOKANO PROGRAM TO AWARD SCHOLARSHIP

The Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University of Hawaii at Manoa will award two scholarships to two students who are majoring in Ilokano.

Betty Bautista and Alan Manzano will receive the award at the BA Ilokano Scholarship Banquet to be held April 30 at the Hale Koa Hotel in Honolulu.
 

Through the years, funds for the scholarship award have been through the auspices of the United Filipino Council of Hawaii, the Gunglo Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano-Hawaii (GUMIL Hawaii), Timpuyog: Ilokano Students Organization, Timpuyog Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano Global (TMI Global), Don and Dr. Patricia Brown, and Gerald Santos.

Bautista, also majoring in social work, has worked in various jobs in Hawaii and Hong Kong. She says that her enhancing her skills in Ilokano will make her a competent and committed social worker.
 

Several years ago, she immigrated to Hawaii, took up liberal arts at the Honolulu Community College, and then transferred to UH Manoa to study Ilokano and social work.
 

Manzano, born in Hawaii, decided to specialize in Ilokano after realizing that he is at home in the language of his heritage and after seeing that there is room for specialists in the culture and language of the Ilokanos particularly in the social services and education sector of Hawaii.

The BA Ilokano Scholarship Program was instituted by the UH Ilokano Program after getting, in 2002, the university approval to offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philippine Language and Literature, with a specialization in Ilokano.
 

Some of those who have received the Ilokano scholarship are now working as teachers in the public schools, as government employees, or as graduate students.
 

Two of those who have been awarded the scholarship—Rachelle Aurellano and Krystel Coloma—were president of Timpuyog: Ilokano Student Organization of UH Manoa.
 

Manzano, a student leader himself, has been an officer of the Timpuyog for several years. Both Manzano and Bautista are now undergoing practicum work in translation and interpretation at a state agency on language access.
 

TMI Global makes this year’s fund for scholarship possible. The officers will turn in the group’s donation at the banquet to be attended by the faculty of the Ilokano Program, the students, and the members of the community.

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