It was that time of the year again and Servco was proud to acknowledge its 2017 Toyota Technical Education Program (T-TEP) Scholarship winners. This year Servco awarded two Honolulu Community College Auto Technology students with scholarships. The winners were La’akea Manini and Clarence Keawe III. In addition, Servco was proud to begin a partnership with Leeward Community College’s Auto Technology program awarding the first ever Toyota Technology Program scholarship to LCC student Mark Balasbas this year.
“It was exciting to be able to bring the T-TEP scholarship program to the Leeward Community College campus for the first time this year. We are looking forward to long term relationship with them,” said Gene Murata, senior HR recruiter.
To qualify for the scholarship, students needed to have completed at least one semester in the Auto Technology Associates Degree program and have at least one more semester to complete in addition to their current semester, along with a 3.0 cumulative GPA. Qualified students were then asked to complete a Toyota Technician Assessment Examination and the top scores were moved on to the finals.
Five finalists were selected from Honolulu Community College and three from Leeward Community College. The finalists were asked to submit letters of recommendation and were interviewed by a panel of judges on the selection committee. The task was difficult as both campuses presented excellent candidates.
“I have been coordinating the T-TEP scholarship competition for over 25 years and it gets harder each year to select our winners. The students being produced at our community colleges are getting better and better,” said Gene. “It’s also a testament to the great job the instructors are doing at those campuses. Ironically, many of the instructors there are also former or current Servco technicians.”
T-TEP winners receive scholarship money to pay for their tuition and books and are employed at Servco Auto Customer Service as a casual part-time Technician Apprentice where they will learn about Toyota products and the latest technical skills used to repair Toyota vehicles.
A big mahalo to the automotive instructors at Honolulu Community College and Leeward Community College for doing a great job in preparing the students. A special thank you to Roy Nagamine of Honolulu Community College and Milton Ayakawa of Leeward Community College for helping to coordinate the activities surrounding the competition.
Last, but not least, a big thank you to the selection committee consisting of Maxine Duropan , Gene Murata , and Amber Bundalian from Servco’s Human Resources Department; Neal Tanaka , Keith Takenouchi , and Wes Kimura from Servco Auto Customer Service; and Honolulu Community College’s Shanon Miho.