Rockers donate to HCC

Rock band Motley Uke recently made a donation to the metal shop at Honolulu Community College.

The Sheetmetal & Plastics Program received $500 for materials the students will use for a variety of projects.

Metalmaster Danny Aiu accepted the check for the University of Hawaii Foundation from Motley Uke leader Jeff Clark in the metal shop in a presentation with the college’s chancellor and other top educators.

Motley Uke plays metal classics, hard-rock hits and original material on ukulele.

Youth of the Year named

Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii named Jeffrey Jones, a Waianae High School student from the Waianae Clubhouse, as the 2016 Hawaii Youth of the Year.

Jones and several other candidates from across the state spent a day at the state Capitol competing for the title — meeting with various legislators, having presentations on the Senate and House floors, and getting a private visit with Gov. David Ige.

“Since joining Boys & Girls Club when I was 7, I have overcome obstacles such as bullying and bad influences,” Jones said in a news release. “The Boys & Girls Club helped me become a strong, motivated and confident leader and as Youth of the Year I hope that I can empower and help others.”

The sophomore was recently selected to be a delegate at the Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders, which will be held this summer in Boston. He is also being nominated for his school’s National Honor Society and is the historian for the Waianae Clubhouse.

He will receive a $5,000 scholarship and will also participate in a Leadership University in Atlanta this summer with top business and academic leaders along with the other state Youth of the Year winners.

2 isle teachers lauded

The Southwest Conference on Language Teaching has recognized two Hawaii teachers for their efforts in “world language” study and teaching. Aina Haina Elementary School’s Junko Agena was awarded the “Excellence in Classroom Teaching Award” for the elementary category, and Maui High School’s Jeenna Canche won the inaugural Lynn Sandstedt Memorial Spanish Scholarship, which sponsors a study abroad trip for Spanish.

The Excellence in Classroom Teaching Award recognizes outstanding teachers of languages other than English at the elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels.

Agena teaches Japanese at Aina Haina Elementary and is the only elementary-certified teacher in Hawaii with a full-time position teaching a language other than English at a nonimmersion public elementary school. Canche is head of the world languages department at Maui High.

World language classes are offered at more than 120 public schools in Hawaii, ranging from elementary to high school. Languages offered include Hawaiian, Filipino (Tagalog and Ilocano), French, German, Japanese, Latin, Russian and Spanish.

More information about the conference and the awards is available online at swcolt.org.

Health officer honored

The National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii, in partnership with the Danny Kaleikini Foundation, honored Kenneth Moritsugu with its lifetime achievement award last month.

Born and raised in Honolulu, Moritsugu was named U.S. surgeon general in 2002 and again in 2006, and was the first Asian-American appointed to serve in the post.

He was a career officer in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Serv-ice for 37 years, reaching the rank of rear admiral. He was also operational commander of the 6,500 Commissioned Corps health professionals before retiring in 2007.

Moritsugu is a former vice president for global professional education and strategic relations for Johnson & Johnson’s Diabetes Solutions Cos., and former worldwide chairman of Johnson & Johnson’s Diabetes Institutes.