It Feels So Good to Support ARCS Scholars!
Mona Elmore, far right, and her late husband George Elmore were celebrated as the ARCS Foundation Honolulu Chapter’s Golden Hearts during the February 2013 Heart of Gold luncheon at the Outrigger Canoe Club. A former educator with a keen interest in science and discovery, Mona has generously sponsored Honolulu’s Scholar of the Year and Scientist of the Year awards for several years. Special guest speaker Gail Grabowski, professor of environmental studies at Chaminade University, struck a chord with the story of her personal ordeal with colon-rectal cancer. Refusing to be a victim of her cancer, she became an active participant in her recovery and provided valuable information to her doctors by applying the research-based approach she learned as a scientist to analysis of her own treatments.
Scholar Update: Marine Biologist Shayle Matsuda
“The increasing frequency and severity of global coral bleaching events, the devastation to reef ecosystems and the communities who rely on them led to my dedication to coral reef conservation.”
As a University of Hawai‘i at Manoa doctoral candidate, 2019 Honolulu ARCS Scholar Shayle Matsuda pioneered new molecular techniques to study symbioses between coral, algae and bacteria. He continues that work as part of an international coral reef restoration project under a 2021 David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship—a premier postdoctoral program in conservation science that supports early-career scientists and seeks solutions to the most pressing conservation challenges.
