UH Hilo English major Jun Reyes receives the 2025 Matthew Somchai Therrien Memorial Award
Jun Reyes, an excellent undergraduate writer as a poet and scholar, has participated widely in local and national conferences and contributed steadfast service to the UH Hilo English program.
Jun Reyes is the recipient of the $1,000 2025 Matthew Somchai Therrien Memorial Award, given annually to an outstanding English major at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo.
Reyes graduates with a bachelor of arts in English and a creative writing certificate this semester. They hold a 4.0 grade point average and have demonstrated excellence in writing throughout their undergraduate studies.
“Jun is an outstanding student who excels academically,” says Kirsten Møllegaard, professor of English.
“They have participated in the Kauaʻi Writers Conference in 2023, presented an original research paper at the 2024 HERA Humanities Education and Research Association’s conference at San Francisco State University, and they will also be presenting a paper at the New Directions in the Humanities conference in Hilo in June 2025,” she says.
- UH Hilo English students and faculty attend writers conference (Dec. 13, 2023, UH Hilo Stories)
- Three UH Hilo English majors present their analytical research at literary conference in San Francisco (April 16, 2024, UH Hilo Stories)
Reyes was also awarded the Droste Award for excellence in poetry writing in spring 2024 and received the Droste Bookstore voucher in spring 2022.
“They have contributed steadfast service to the English program by participating in, and, lately, chairing the English Club and assisting with organizing Meet Your Major,” says Møllegaard. “Jun is also actively involved in screenwriting for a locally produced film on the life and legacy of plantation-era union organizer Katsu Goto.”
- Photos: UH Hilo filmmaker ramps up production on documentary honoring 19th century Hawaiʻi Island hero (March 4, 2025, UH Hilo Stories)
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.
