Kiana Favela

Congratulations to Kids’ Chance of Hawaii’s 2020 Scholarship Recipients!

My dad, Police Officer Steve Favela, was a Solo Bike Officer for the Honolulu Police Department. During the week of Thanksgiving in 2006 my dad was part of the Presidential Motorcade for President George W. Bush. I was five years old at the time and I vividly remember how excited he was to be a part of something he felt was so important.

His and two other officer’s motorcycles slid on the wet pavement that morning as they entered Hickam Air Force Base, and five days later he succumbed to his injures and passed away. For me, the affect that the death of my dad had was that it made me want to find ways to carry on his legacy in a positive way. Whether it was through community service or doing well in school, I always want to make my dad proud of me because I am proud of everything that he did and his commitment to public service. With this in mind, I choose community-service related projects that I know would be important to my dad, such as cleaning beaches because my dad loved the ocean, or helping those that are less fortunate because I remember my dad telling me stories of how he helped someone when he was a police officer.

Being the recipient of a “Kids Chance Hawaii” Scholarship will help me meet my life goals by allowing me to follow my dreams to attend college on the mainland, so that I can earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism and pursue a career in the local news industry in Hawaii.

I am interested in this course of study because for as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to combine my love for community service with my love for writing to become a broadcast journalist. I want to cover stories that are meaningful and relevant to the people of Hawaii and our country, and I see myself as someone who has the ability to make a difference in people’s lives through my writing and reporting. To prepare myself for a career in broadcast journalism I have taken a journalism class in high school and I have worked really hard to maintain my GPA. It is my hope that through a combination of financial aid, scholarships, grants and student loans, I will be able to attend one of the colleges on the mainland that I have already been accepted to.