The Filipino Women’s League (FWL) offers four (4) $2,000 scholarships to Hawaiʻi high school seniors of Filipino heritage. An additional $2,000 scholarship in the memory of Estrellita Taguba Ebersole is also being offered. So a total of five (5) scholarships are available through the FWL. The deadline for applications is generally March of each year but please double-check!
Eligibility criteria for applicants are:
- a Hawaiʻi high school senior with a GPA of 3.7 or higher
- Enrolling full time at a Hawaiʻi institution of higher learning (e.g., community college, university, vocational technical, etc.)
- Have Filipino ancestry
- The annual Estrellita Taguba Ebersole Scholarship has the same eligibility criteria. This Scholarship will recognize a Hawaiʻi high school senior who best demonstrates their involvement in any or all forms of community service, public service and a spirit of volunteerism to include giving back to the community by helping others succeed, examples of extracurricular activities to better his or her community, educational outreach, youth programs or faith-based activities.
- As part of their application for the Estrellita Taguba Ebersole Scholarship, applicants will also be required to submit a short essay (no longer than one page) explaining why they should be considered for this scholarship, describing their participation in two or more of the activities mentioned in the previous paragraph and discussing their future aspirations.
Applicants are required to apply via the “Scholarsapp” website. For more information about the annual FWL scholarships or to apply, please visit the Scholars App website at https://scholarsapp.com/scholarship/filipino-womens-league/
The Estrellita Taguba Ebersole Scholarship is located at https://scholarsapp.com/scholarship/estrellita-taguba-ebersole-scholarship/
Note from Mike: Like many of you, I have a “thing” about cookbooks, particularly old ones whether they are my Mother’s from Florida, my Dad’s from Pennsylvania Dutch country and especially the cherished family ones from Hawaiʻi. One day while sitting in the kitchen during a visit “home” sometime in the 1980’s, as Lita and her Mom (who I call “Nay”, pronounced “nai”) made yet another wonderful dish on the stovetop, I was going through a recipe book. It was called “Favorite Recipes of Hawaii Filipinos”. Below the title I read “Souvenir Edition Filipino 75th Anniversary Commemoration”. I learned later that to celebrate the arrival of the first Filipinos in Hawaiʻi (15 men or “sakadas” in 1906 to work in the sugarcane plantations), the Hawaiʻi legislature passed Enabling Act 181 in 1977 which created the Filipino 75th Anniversary Commemoration Commission. The concept for the Commission came from the Hawaiʻi Filipino-American Community Foundation. One of the Commission’s primary goals was to coordinate the yearlong 75th anniversary in 1981. The cookbook I was reading (filled with 46 mouth-watering recipes!) was sponsored by the Commission and was compiled and edited by the Filipino Women’s League (FWL). When I asked Nay about the cookbook and the FWL, I cannot remember exactly what she said but I clearly recall that she thought very highly of the group and their work. It therefore made perfect sense nearly 40 years later to ask the FWL if they would host the first Estrellita Taguba Ebersole Scholarship. The family is extremely grateful to the FWL for graciously accepting our proposal!