Paubox, a San Francisco-based tech company founded by local entrepreneur Hoala Greevy, is seeking applicants for its latest round of college scholarships.
The Paubox Kahikina STEM Scholarship is designed for Native Hawaiian students pursuing a STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — major at an accredited college. The scholarship is funded by the company, and it provides recipients with $1,000 each year until they graduate.
“The money goes to the student, and they can do with it as they see fit,” Greevy told PBN.
While the scholarship is for Native Hawaiian students, Greevy said applicants can live anywhere — though, he said, all recipients so far have been Hawaii residents.
Greevy launched the scholarship in 2019 and told PBN that there are currently 23 active recipients. This year, he anticipates that Paubox will be able to fund up to 10 new scholarships. “We will also be honoring our commitment to existing students as long as they are enrolled,” he added.
Recipients are chosen by an advisory board of local business and tech leaders, and Greevy said applications are evaluated on personal essays, recommendations, and grades.
Greevy said he launched the Paubox Kahikina Scholarship — which he named in honor of his tutu — because he had received a scholarship that helped him attend Portland State University after graduating from McKinley High School. When he found out that the scholarship he had received no longer existed, he said he felt an “obligation to do something about it.”
He said he wanted to target Native Hawaiian students in order to help increase Hawaiian representation in the tech sector.
According to data about the scholarship on Paubox’s website as of the end of 2022, recipients have included students at Harvard University, University of Southern California, University of Hawaii and more. The majority, nearly 60%, attended high school on Oahu, but there have been recipients from each of the three other main islands.
The deadline to apply for this year’s scholarship is May 31. For more information and to apply, click here.
Paubox is a HIPPA-compliant communication business that provides email and marketing solutions for the health care industry. Greevy founded the company in 2015 and said that it now has thousands of customers in all 50 states, along with 50 employees. While the company is based in California, Greevy said its workforce is remote and noted that a few of the key executives are based in Hawaii.
