The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s School of Travel Industry Management (TIM) in the Shidler College of Business received a $500,000 gift from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to support students who enrolled from Hawaiʻi high schools. The gift establishes a new scholarship that will assist juniors and seniors who demonstrate financial need and leadership abilities, with a preference for students of Native Hawaiian ancestry.
The Hilton family, with their strong historic ties to the islands, hopes this gift will increase the pool of qualified local candidates who represent the host culture and can help to provide more diversity in management positions in the visitor industry. This is their second largest gift in support of education and training at UH. A gift of $5 million was made in 2008 to the UH Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Diamond Head.
“The amount of support shown for the TIM school through this scholarship is remarkable,” said Shidler College of Business Dean Vance Roley. “With Hawaiʻi as a prime hospitality destination, it’s vital for the college to build and retain our pipeline of local talent. The scholarship, which also carries the legacy of the Hilton family, will attract future hospitality leaders to attain their degree at UH Mānoa, and hopefully continue their careers within Hawaiʻi.”
“The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is a longtime partner in hospitality education with UH, including its foundational gift to the Culinary Institute of the Pacific project,” said Tim Dolan, vice president of advancement at UH and CEO of the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation. “We are grateful for the Hilton family’s support of the TIM school and their recognition of the importance of Hawaiʻi’s culture to education and the tourism industry.”
International hotelier Conrad N. Hilton established the grantmaking foundation that bears his name in 1944 to help people living in poverty and experiencing disadvantage worldwide. Today, the work continues, concentrating on efforts to ensure healthy early childhood development and sustainable livelihoods for youth, support young people transitioning out of foster care, improve access to housing and support services for people experiencing homelessness, identify solutions to safe water access and lift the work of Catholic sisters. Additionally, following selection by an independent, international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $2.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to an organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. The Foundation is one of the world’s largest, with approximately $8.5 billion in assets. It has awarded grants to date totaling more than $2.4 billion, $339 million worldwide in 2021. Visit the Hilton Foundation website for more information.
For more information on the scholarship or application process, visit https://shidler.hawaii.edu/tim/scholarships. For more information on how to support the Shidler College of Business, contact Kristi Bates, executive director of development at (808) 956-3597 or email kristi.bates@uhfoundation.org.
