{"id":155983,"date":"2022-03-01T11:04:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T21:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=155983"},"modified":"2024-03-15T22:05:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T08:05:40","slug":"prof-dedicates-ag-scholarship-to-late-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/03\/01\/prof-dedicates-ag-scholarship-to-late-wife\/","title":{"rendered":"东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo professor dedicates ag scholarship to late wife"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"family\"
Margarita “Dayday” and Kevin Hopkins with their 11 grandchildren.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A scholarship has been endowed as a memorial to former University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Hilo lecturer Margarita “Dayday” Hopkins<\/strong> by Kevin<\/strong>, her husband of 48 years and a retired professor from 东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management<\/a>. The purpose of the endowment is to carry on Dayday Hopkins\u2019s work championing agricultural and Filipino communities in Hawaiʻi<\/span>, which, after family, was the focus of her life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Margarita “Dayday” Hopkins Scholarship<\/a> is open to any full-time undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor\u2019s degree at 东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo in agriculture or a related field at the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management. Preference will be given to students interested in the contribution of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans to Hawaiʻi<\/span>\u2019s agriculture.<\/p>\n

Hopkins died on November 6, 2021, after battling ALS<\/abbr> for four years. She was 71.<\/p>\n

She was born Margarita Leyson in Maasin, Philippines, one of three daughters, and given the nickname Dayday, which means “little one.” She attended St. Joseph\u2019s College on a scholarship, earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in accounting.<\/p>\n

After graduation, Hopkins moved to the island of Mindanao where she met her future husband, Kevin, a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer who was working in the same fisheries office as her sister. They were married after a short courtship of only five months. She enrolled in a master\u2019s degree program in agricultural economics at Xavier University, studying the marketing practices of small-scale fishermen. She also worked for the Peace Corps as a language instructor.<\/p>\n

After Kevin\u2019s Peace Corps service was complete, the couple moved to Alabama, where he earned a master\u2019s degree and a doctorate in fisheries and aquaculture and an MBA<\/abbr> from Auburn University. Dayday was the first woman of color appointed to a research associate position in Auburn\u2019s Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture and conducted the first organized sales of tilapia in the United States.<\/p>\n

In 1988, she and Kevin moved to Hilo, where Kevin became a professor in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management at 东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo. Dayday was hired as an economic development specialist by the County of Hawaiʻi<\/span>, responsible for its agriculture and natural resources programs, and later became head of the county\u2019s Department of Research and Development. She retired from the county in 2012 after 23 years of public service.<\/p>\n

Dayday loved teaching, she was a 东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo lecturer in economics and ag business. Unfortunately, ALS<\/abbr> robbed her of her ability to speak and the use of her hands, ending her teaching career. She continued to help her husband with his research and consulting work by using a computer system controlled by her eyes.\u202fShe is survived by three children, daughters Leyson and Alyxandra and a son, Shanon, and 11 grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The scholarship is open to any full-time undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor\u2019s degree at 东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo in agriculture or a related field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[222,593,756,572,319,14,1626],"class_list":["post-155983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-agriculture","tag-college-of-agriculture-forestry-and-natural-resource-management","tag-in-memoriam","tag-scholarship","tag-uh-foundation","tag-uh-hilo","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155983"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155997,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155983\/revisions\/155997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}