UH Hilo English major Ariel Moniz awarded scholarship for excellence in writing

Ariel Moniz is an accomplished poet and writer with an impressive publication record.

Ariel Moniz
Ariel Moniz

The Department of English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo recently announced that English major Ariel Moniz will receive the Spring 2016  The Matthew Somchai Therrien Memorial Award for Excellence in Writing. Moniz is the second recipient of the $500 annual award that recognizes an outstanding UH Hilo student majoring in English.

Matthew Somchai Therrien was an aspiring English major at UH Hilo at the time of his death in April 2014. He was a gifted poet and writer with a dream of becoming an English professor. The scholarship in his honor is made possible by generous donations from his family and friends to annually recognize an outstanding UH Hilo student majoring in English..

Recipients of the award must be a full-time English major, have a cumulative minimum grade point average of 3.0, and have demonstrated excellence in writing through course work (fiction and/or non-fiction). Preference is given to students who demonstrate community service activity and to students who have published fiction or non-fiction.

Moniz meets these criteria in full. She is a full-time senior with a 3.91 GPA, and she is an accomplished poet and writer. She has an impressive publication record, with three academic journal articles published in Hohonu: Journal of Academic Writing (Vol. 13, 2015) and four creative pieces published in Kanilehua: Art and Literary Magazine (2014-15). She has more publications forthcoming. She is currently editor-in-chief of Kanilehua, the UH Hilo student paper.

With her kindness, friendly attitude, and strong work ethic, Moniz is a positive role model for her peers.

She has presented her research on the Celtic Revival at the international conference Narratives of Place in Literature, Film and Folklore (March, 2016) and will be going to Ireland on a study abroad program this summer to study Irish literature and culture.

Moniz also is the recipient of this year’s Howard and Yoneko Droste Award for Outstanding Work in Poetry.

For more information, contact Kirsten Møllegaard.

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