TRANSPORTATION FELLOWSHIP
Dingyi Liu, a master of urban and regional planning student, is the recipient of a $10,000 Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship, awarded to students pursuing degrees in transportation-related disciplines. Liu is assessing the relationship between zoning and walkability in Honolulu, and is studying and doing research under the guidance of DURP Associate Professor Suwan Shen.
SOCIOLOGY SCHOLARSHIP
Sociology graduate student Aya Shirayama has been awarded the 2024 Gary Kazuo Sakihara Memorial Scholarship. It recognizes a Sociology PhD candidate whose dissertation research employs a challenging research design, presents findings that benefit the community, and who exemplifies collegiality. Shirayama’s research interests are ethnicity, identity, diaspora, food, indigenous sociology, Okinawans, Asia Pacific and qualitative research.
EXCELLING ON THE COURT AND IN CLASSROOM
Kate Lang, an Honors student in Political Science and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, was one of four members of the UH women’s volleyball team named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District team. The recognition is for athletic performance on the collegiate volleyball court and excellence in the classroom. Winning the accolade as a senior setter, Lang was named Big West Setter of the Year for the second time in her career, and is on the All-Big West first team.
NEVER TOO LATE TO EARN DEGREE
Thomas Mui, 91, completed his master’s degree in political science in December 2024 after more than 70 years of first starting his graduate studies at UH Mānoa. Mui completed his coursework in the mid-1950s but never finished the then-required thesis. See the inspiring UH News story.
