Ho‘oulu Pacific took first place in the Chaminade University Hogan Entrepreneurs/American Savings Bank Non-Profit Business Plan Competition for its Waimanalo Aquaponics Project, April 23.
More than $30,000 in prizes was awarded to eight winners of the competition. This was the sixth competition held at Chaminade University. The winners, their projects and their prizes are:
- First place, $12,000: Ho‘oulu Pacific: Waimanalo Aquaponics Project
- Second place, $8,000: Big Island Substance Abuse Council: Food Truck Training Initiative
- Third place, $4,000: Boys and Girls Club of the Big Island: Revolutionary Youth Market
- Fourth place, $2,000: Blue Planet Foundation: WEfficiency
Four finalists, each winning $1,000 are:
- The Food Basket, Inc.: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- Imua Family Services: Inclusion Preschool
- Pacific Gateway Center: Culinary Business Incubator
- Health and Research Center: Non-Resident Pilot
Chaminade’s Hogan Entrepreneurs combined the awards event with its 12th annual graduation and induction of students at Mystical Rose Oratory. This program encourages students to use their entrepreneurial passion and academic achievements to contribute to their communities.
Featured speakers included Richard Wacker, president & CEO of American Savings Bank, Ed Hogan, chair and CEO of The Hogan Family Foundation, and EDavid Cohen, former president of Common Cause and renowned public interest lobbyist. Cohen also received the program’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Students receiving Hogan Awards were:
- Outstanding Hogan Entrepreneur: Alexandra Copney, senior history/political science major from Honolulu
- Outstanding Senior: Bernardo Equila III, accounting major from Honolulu;
- Outstanding Juniors: Peter Cheng, accounting major from Honolulu; Rebekah Schlessman, international business-trade major, from Portland, Ore.
Receiving Aloha Awards were:
- Melyn Yamaguchi, senior in accounting, from Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia;
- Fabian Lewis, MBA, from San Antonio, Texas;
- Jon Ilao, junior business administration major, from Barrigada, Guam;
- Kaelani Demapan, junior in psychology, from Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands
Open to all majors, undergraduates and graduate students, Chaminade’s Hogan Entrepreneurs program recognizes new entrepreneurial ideas from students that will contribute to the well-being of society.