Why We Started
Traven Watase started the first PB&J Scholarship back in 2013 when he graduated Governor Wallace Rider Farrington High School. Traven was not a good student when he was in High School and did not have strong family support from his parents. In which he moved from Roosevelt High School (Honolulu, HI) to Kauai High School (Lihue, HI) and finally graduated from Governor Wallace Rider Farrington High School (Honolulu, HI). What he realized is that kids who do not have proper guidance/encountered an unusual challenge, are at a significant disadvantage that not a lot of scholarships recognize. Most scholarships you see are merit-based, financial need, or ethnicity. But students who encountered challenges in their lives may not be able to achieve merit-based benchmarks, might be in the middle ground of financial need, and not qualify for ethnicity-based scholarships. So because of this Traven decided to eat PB&J Sandwiches to save money on his budget so that he could pay forward a scholarship while he was in his first year of college himself. Traven did not start the scholarship because he had a lot of money, but he was willing to sacrifice a little and give what he could to help out someone going through similar challenges that he went through.
