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In matters of giving back and paying forward, Maryknoll School junior Kiana Arca- yena doesn’t care to be overly discriminate.
In between family obligations, schoolwork and her duties as a standout utility player for the school’s championship softball team, Arcayena devotes considerable time and energy to a variety of organizations and causes benefiting all walks — and several species — of life, from homeless families and children with special needs to the hungry and infirm to animals in need of love and shelter.
“I’ve always liked helping people,” Arcayena said matter-of-factly. “The emotion that I get back is a gift in itself.”
Arcayena was born in Fremont, Calif., and moved to Hawaii with her family when she was 6, landing first in Kaneohe before settling in Kailua.
The third of four children, she credits her parents with instilling in her an appreciation for hard work — her father is a real estate broker, and her mother works for an airline — and her paternal grandmother, who immigrated to the United States from the Philippines, for emphasizing the importance of education.
“She always told us to focus on education,” Arcayena said. “She wanted us to go to college to make it in the world because she knew how tough it was.”
Her passion for community service, she said, was stoked by Maryknoll and its famed motto of “noblesse oblige” — to whom much is given, much is expected.
“Considering how blessed we are to attend a school like this, it’s only right to give back to people who may be less fortunate,” she said.
And so, in a marvel of teenage energy channeled through NASA-level time management, Arcayena goes about lending her helping hands to whatever worthy cause she can find.
On Sundays, for example, she attends New Hope church, where she helps to provide care for members’ infants and toddlers at the church’s Kids Zone. After church she volunteers a few hours at either Castle Medical Center, where she runs supplies between departments, or at Therapeutic Horsemanship of Hawaii, a Waimanalo-based program that provides therapeutic horseback opportunities for people with special needs and other individuals.
Arcayena also helps to raise funds for Special Olympics Hawaii, participates in food drives and other services on behalf of Catholic Charities Hawaii, tutors children at the Next Step Shelter in Kakaako, and feeds and walks animals at the Hawaiian Humane Society.
For all of her efforts in school and throughout the community, Arcayena was awarded a $12,000 Kekumano Scholarship at Maryknoll’s annual Monsignor Charles A. Kekumano Award and Scholarship Dinner at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel on Saturday.
“It’s really humbling,” Arcayena said. “It means a lot to me because my mom and dad work so hard to send us to a private school. I know they’re proud, and the (scholarship) is a small way of giving back.”
Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.
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