I'm Jean. I'm a third generation Japanese American. My grandparents, both sides, came from Hiroshima. They worked on the plantation.
I first came to the University of Hawaii at Manoa as a senior at Roosevelt High School. I'm the first grandchild to graduate from college.
I climbed the ladder of success at the University. I went from instructor to professor.
Without scholarships we wouldn't have been able to have the careers and the life that we had. And so, I've always wanted to give back to the University of Hawaii and Schwab Charitable is allowing me to do that.
Tuition was getting more and more expensive. I had a sister-in-law who was also inclined to be generous, and I said, ‘Why don't we start a scholarship?' We got help when we were students and so we want to show our gratitude in some kind of way.
We transferred money into our Schwab Charitable account. We get the full tax break, but we didn't have to distribute it at that moment. The beauty of it is, I didn't have to make decisions about where to give that money all at once.
The Donor Advised Fund helps us be anonymous in our giving which is what we want to do. It's giving without fanfare.
Giving because, well, we think it's the right thing to do.