Scholarship Award to Sophia Whitesell
In Memory of Judy Kawatachi Inokuchi

Sophia Whitesell will receive a $2,000 scholarship at the Honoka‘a Hongwanji Buddhist Temple Family Service, 9 a.m. on August 7, 2022. The scholarship will be presented in memory of Judy (Kawatachi) Inokuchi, by her daughter Lynn Nagata.

Sophia was selected because of her outstanding community service with the Peace Committee's Feeding Our Keiki and Kupuna program. For over two years, she has worked on the dedicated cleanup crew, faithfully showing up every Friday to wrap up the present week and prepare for the next.

A busy senior at Honoka‘a High School, she found time to help paint areas of the temple and organize the donor database during Fall Break. She’s also worked shelving books and other volunteer work at the Honoka‘a Public Library.

“I've found that volunteering in our community has become increasingly important to me,” Sophia says. “Being able to help people has provided me with a lot of fulfillment, especially being able to help some of the most vulnerable people here in the Honoka‘a area. I've been brought up to believe that one of the most important parts of being a human is existing as part of a support system. By supporting the people in our communities, we can help each other to thrive.”

Her belief in supporting community has helped guide her goals for the future. “I want to help prevent or even reverse environmental and ecological issues so that our global community will be safer and more balanced,” Sophia says To that end, she will attend the University of New Mexico, and work towards a degree in Environmental Science.