Every year, Stephen C. Green of Waikoloa on Hawaiʻi Island writes a check to the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation to support the higher education dreams of local students. This year, he also wrote a thank you email to UH President David Lassner.

“I’d like to express my appreciation for the UH Regents Scholarship program and give an update on my daughter, Daisy Green, who received the scholarship in 2012,” he wrote. “She graduated from UH Mānoa in fall 2015 in electrical engineering, and is now attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, in her second year of pursuing a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science.”

Stephen and Yuko Green are understandably proud of their daughter. Daisy, a 2012 graduate of Kealakehe High School in Kailua-Kona, possessed both the academic and athletic prowess that led to her three years on the UH women’s tennis team and a degree in electrical engineering.

But they are particularly appreciative of Daisy’s UH Regents scholarship, which—along with the UH Presidential scholarship—supports Hawaiʻi students with a record of outstanding academic achievement.

UH Board of Regents Chair Jan Sullivan said the university strives to ensure that exceptional students can receive the quality higher education they seek, so they can stay in or return to Hawaiʻi with enhanced career skills, knowledge and personal growth. “We want to retain the best and brightest to attend UH and provide a learning experience that jumpstarts the rest of their lives,” she said.

Daisy Green is a shining example. “I wouldn’t be at MIT , where last year I was able to serve as an energy fellow, without the financial support and great education that I received from UH ,” she said.

Added President Lassner, “We have thousands of amazing stories of how our students are succeeding in their studies and lives, including how a superb and affordable UH education has inspired them to achieve. Mahalo, Mr. Green, for the update on Daisy and for your support of our scholarship programs.”