UH Hilo English major Evangeline Lemieux receives 2023 Matthew Somchai Therrien Memorial Award
Evy Lemieux is prolific with excellent work in both academic and creative genres, proving herself to be already proficient and highly skilled while completing her undergraduate studies.
At 5:20 in the video above, Evangeline Lemieux performs a monologue of her own creation in fall of 2021 as part of the second episode of Wailau, a video storytelling series launched by UH Hilo the same year. Her piece is entitled “An Apology,” as part of the episode’s theme “A Just World” — and yes, that is “Evy” in the screenshot.
The Department of English at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo has announced student Evangeline “Evy” Lemieux as the 2023 recipient of the $1,000 Matthew Somchai Therrien Memorial Award.
Lemieux is double majoring in English and medical anthropology, two majors that Professor of English Kirsten Møllegaard says provide the young scholar with a strong combination of theoretical approaches in the study of narratives, culture, and social phenomena.
“She is a diligent writer and a wonderful storyteller,” says Møllegaard. “With her strong written and oral communication skills, deep interest in storytelling and culture, and her demonstrated commitment to making UH Hilo a great place for students to learn and thrive, Evangeline is a worthy and much deserving recipient of the Matthew Somchai Therrien Memorial Award.”
Lemieux is prolific with excellent work in both academic and creative genres, proving herself to be already proficient and highly skilled while completing her undergraduate studies.
“I am passionate about writing in both creative and academic contexts, and I hope to build a career as a content writer after I graduate,” says Lemieux. “I believe that good written communication is the key to a well-informed world, and I am committed to realizing that ideal in my work.”
The work
In the interest of full disclosure, this semester, Lemieux is a part-time writer on this website, UH Hilo Stories, an online publication of academic, research, and human interest stories about members of the university community, produced by the Office of the Chancellor. So far she has covered students, faculty, and the Mookini Library, and is currently working on a piece to be published next week about guest lecturer Julie Packard, executive director at Monterey Bay Aquarium who spoke Monday at a public forum at the university’s Performing Arts Center.
Lemieux will present an academic analytical paper titled, “I Can’t Extract Myself From Having Come: Extractive Capitalism, Heimweh, and Atlantic Canadian Culture in Kate Beaton’s Ducks,” at the Second Hawai’i International Conference on English Language and Literature Studies, March 10-11, 2023.
Lemieux also has published and performed her own creative works, often based on her own true stories.
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- In April of 2021, a true short story written and performed by Lemieux as part of UH Hilo’s annual Scary Scenarios, a Halloween-inspired production (see “Hitchhiker: A True Story,” starting at 38:46 in the first video below)
- A monologue in fall of 2021 as part of the second episode of Wailau, a video storytelling series launched by UH Hilo in 2021 (see “An Apology,” as part of the episode’s theme “A Just World,” starting at 5:20 in the video at the top of this post)
- A short piece last month as part of the UH Hilo Department of Performing Arts’ Love Is In The Air: Valentine Vignettes 2023 (see “Dating App,” starting at 7:31 in the second video below).
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The multi-talented Lemieux’s many contributions to student life at UH Hilo include her work as editor and editor-in-chief of Kanilehua, a student-run art and literary magazine. The annual publication showcases the creative fiction, non-fiction, poetry, visual, and multi-media arts interests of UH Hilo students.
“My time in both of these positions helped me build skills in responding to creative work as well as line-editing, grammatical editing, and content editing,” Lemieux explains. “These positions also required me to communicate with student writers about their written work. The event-planning aspect of the positions encouraged me to collaborate with other entities at UH Hilo, including [student organizations] and administration.”
The Matthew Somchai Therrien Memorial Award
Matthew S. Therrien was an aspiring English major at UH Hilo at the time of his tragic death in a car accident in 2014. He was a gifted poet and writer with a dream of becoming an English professor. The Matthew Somchai Therrien Memorial Award began with a generous donation by Stephen and Gloria Gainsley, longtime friends of the Therrien family. The annual award recognizes an outstanding UH Hilo student majoring in English.
The recipient of the award must be an English major and have demonstrated academic merit with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. The awardee must also have demonstrated excellence in writing, preferably through published work.
Story by Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
