The Board of Directors of the University of Washington Nikkei Alumni Association (UWNAA) presented its 2019-2020 scholarship awards to five outstanding students at University of Washington. The first award, the William K. Nakamura Medal of Honor Scholarship is for $3000. The Kenichi (Ken) Sato Scholarship and AYNKOA Scholarship recipients both receive $2700. The remaining UWNAAA Scholarships are for $2500. To honor the recipients and their families, UWNAA held a reception on November 16th at Nisei Veterans Committee (NVC) Memorial Hall in Seattle.urke
Alina Butler, daughter of Lance and Lisa Butler, received the William K. Nakamura Medal of Honor Scholarship. Alina is a 2019 graduate of Garfield High School. She has been accepted directly into the College of Engineering, where she intends to major in Civil and Environmental Engineering. As an Environmental Science student, Alina incorporated many of the lessons of her class into her daily life. She also worked to develop an app in her Computer Science class to help the user keep a record of his carbon footprint.
Kimiko Locke, daughter of Joseph Locke and Shareen Saito, received the Kenichi (Ken) Sato Scholarship. Kimiko is a 2019 graduate of Newport High School and a direct admit student to the College of Engineering. A talented jazz vocalist, Kimiko has won both individual and group awards at the national, regional and state level. Drew Deguchi, daughter of Jay and Bernadette Deguchi, received AYNKOA Scholarship. She is a 2019 graduate of Mercer Island High School and intends to study Business Administration. Drew has been coxswain for Mount Baker crew for three years. With Amnesty International, she presented topics and participated in discussions regarding social justice issues.
Emma Enstrom, daughter of Joel and Kelly Enstrom, received the UWNAA Scholarship. Emma is a 2019 graduate of Juanita High School and intends to major in chemistry. Emma has participated in Juanita High School’s swim and dive teams and plays tennis for the school. Koto Durkee, daughter of James and Kyoko Durkee also received a UWNAA Scholarship. Kyoko is a 2019 graduate of AC Davis High School in Yakima and intends to major in chemical engineering. As a Running Start student at Yakima Valley Community College, Koto earned her AA Degree. She will enter the UW as a sophomore. Her interest in chemistry stems from a lab project she did on dye-sensitized solar cells, where she successfully created a solar cell that measured the voltage of 125 mV.
UWNAA was originally known as the University Students Club, Inc., which was incorporated in 1922. The incorporation was proceeded by a fundraising drive to purchase a building near the UW so out-of-town students would have a place to live and all Nikkei students would have a center to meet at. The fundraising drive culminated in the purchase of a two-story building across the UW campus and the club owned it until 1962 when UW purchased the property. UWNAA Scholarship program began in 1965, and since then it has given 362 awards for a total of $410,130.
