2 isle students being honored for volunteering
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, which honors middle- and high-school students throughout the nation for volunteer work, is recognizing two Hawaii teens.
Alexandra Skrocki, 17, a senior at Radford High School, has hosted an annual Back to School Teen Party in her backyard for the past four years to welcome new students from military families to her community and ease anxiety about starting at a new school. Skrocki has also prepared home-cooked meals for single airmen; mentored children of deployed parents; and baked holiday cookies for active-duty men and women. About 60 percent of Radford High’s students are military dependents.
Kaytlen Akau, 13, of Lihue, an eighth-grader at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, is an avid volunteer in her community who logged more than 300 hours last year working with children as a dance studio assistant and a leader at a county enrichment program.
Both students are among 102 youth volunteers — two from each state and the District of Columbia — named as state honorees in an awards program run by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Recipients receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and an all-expenses-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., for four days of national recognition events.
A team of students representing the Computing, Electronics and Networking Technologies program at Honolulu Community College took seventh place in the nation in the Gold Division of the Fall 2014 season of National Cyber League. The team was anchored by Eric Kotake, who placed third, Taylor Kina, who placed 76th, and Joe Lee, who placed 103rd among 822 competitors representing more than 145 colleges and universities.
The National Cyber League is a cybersecurity competition.
Anne Chung, an assistant professor in business technology at Hawaii Community College, has been named Hawaii Business Education Association Educator of the Year.
Chung has taught at Hawaii Community College since 2009. She is a Gen VII Wo Learning Champion and a Gen VIII Community Colleges Leadership Champion, and in 2014 she received the Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
An active HBEA member, Chung serves as the HBEA’s president. She also serves on the Western Business Education Association’s executive board.
Chung began her teaching career in 1993 as a high school teacher. While teaching full time at the high school level, she earned her master’s degree in occupational studies from California State University at Long Beach.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Japanese studies, a minor in business administration and a teaching certificate from the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
