Friends of Haleakala awards scholarships
Erika Kekiwi is a recipient of the second annual Don Reeser and Mary Evanson Memorial Scholarship award given by the Friends of Haleakala National Park. — Friends of Haleakala National Park photo
Janine Harris is also a recipient of the second annual Don Reeser and Mary Evanson Memorial Scholarship award given by the Friends of Haleakala National Park. — Friends of Haleakala National Park photo
Erika Kekiwi is a recipient of the second annual Don Reeser and Mary Evanson Memorial Scholarship award given by the Friends of Haleakala National Park. — Friends of Haleakala National Park photo
Janine Harris is also a recipient of the second annual Don Reeser and Mary Evanson Memorial Scholarship award given by the Friends of Haleakala National Park. — Friends of Haleakala National Park photo
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The Friends of Haleakala National Park has awarded the second annual Don Reeser and Mary Evanson Memorial Scholarship award to Erika Kekiwi and Janine Harris.
The two $1,000 scholarships honor the life work of both Don Reeser, superintendent of Haleakala National Park from 1988 to 2005, and Mary Evanson, co-founder of the nonprofit Friends of Haleakala National Park.
Kekiwi is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools Maui and is currently a graduate student at UH-Hilo in the Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science program. She is working on a project to protect two critically endangered endemic East Maui forest birds. Her project involves the bio-acoustic monitoring of the birds by creating automatic detection algorithms that will help researchers monitor bird song recordings.
Harris, a graduate of King Kekaulike High School, will be a senior in the microbiology laboratory course at the University of Portland in the fall.
She has returned for two past summers to work as an intern at Haleakala National Park. She hasn't yet chosen a field of science to work in, but has enjoyed learning about Maui's cultural and ecological resources through her internships, according to a news release.
For more information about the scholarships and other programs, visit www.fhnp.org.