Hawaiian Airlines and Arizona State University (ASU) awarded the first of eight $10,000 grants under the New Horizons Scholarship Fund to two Native Hawaiian undergraduates enrolled in the W. P. Carey School of Business’s Information Systems program.

Hauʻoli Kalipi, a sophomore and graduate of Hilo High School and Preston Naʻalelalani Ponteras, a senior and a Kamehameha Schools graduate from Oʻahu, each received $10,000 in college tuition assistance.

In a thank you letter, Kalipi shared that her goal is to use her degree to help Hawaiʻi businesses like Hawaiian Airlines or go into sports analytics. “I am proud of how far I have come academically and professionally and to represent the department as a Native Hawaiian student,” she wrote. “I am currently an honors college student and a W.P. Carey Leadership Academy member. I have also recently started working as a data assistant to begin my professional career.”

Ponteras also expressed pride in calling Hawaiʻi home and representing his community in Arizona. “As someone who was born and raised in Hawaiʻi, it is important that I put on my best to represent the islands in everything that I do,” he wrote. “For my accomplishments to be recognized by Hawaiian Airlines is a blessing and another accomplishment in my book. This scholarship makes me excited for the next time I get to step onto their aircraft for my next journey back home.”