A Teacher’s Vision

For nearly 20 years, the scholarship conceived by Bill Davis has supported Hawai‘i Island students

Bill Davis

Bill Davis, a northern California native, was introduced to HPA and to Hawai‘i by Holi Bergin ’88, his college friend and rugby teammate at the University of Colorado, Boulder. After Holi passed away in 1995, Davis moved to Waimea and cemented what has now been a decades-long relationship with Hawai‘i. He also landed in HPA’s English department, where he soon got, as he puts it, “very invested in the place.” He was still finishing up his dissertation on Anglo-American narratives of Polynesia at Claremont Graduate University, but he nevertheless found time during his four years at HPA not only to teach but also to coach soccer and start a rugby program, which is still thriving today.

His true legacy, however, is the HPA Faculty Big Island Scholarship Fund, which he started in 2001 with a generous gift and the backing of other major donors. “I really got interested in doing the fund because a lot of my friends who had gone to HPA and who were still on island were having kids—people like Bill Bergin ’84, who’d become a firefighter, or Chris Ka’aua ‘84, who was working as a cowboy for Parker Ranch,” Davis explains. “I was thinking, ‘There’s no way these guys can afford to send their kids there anymore.’ And so, as a teacher, I really wanted to try to ensure that economic diversity at the school could continue, along with a genuine local and community connection.”

The HPA Faculty Big Island Scholarship is almost entirely administered and funded by faculty, many of whom continue to make regular gifts to the fund via payroll deductions. Also according to Davis and the other donors’ wishes, the selection of recipients is made exclusively by a faculty committee who reviews scholarship application essays. “In my experience,” Davis says, “faculty are exceptionally good judges of who’s going to enrich the community beyond just rote criteria. My idea was that having teachers intimately involved in those decisions would allow people to attend the school who heretofore had not been able to attend.” As a lifelong teacher himself—he’s now an English professor at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA—Davis admits to having a certain bias, but it’s one that’s hard to disagree with: “Faculty are really the lifeblood of an institution. You don’t fondly remember a classroom or a structure. It’s about the people who are there.”

As a teacher, I really wanted to try to ensure that economic diversity at the school could continue, along with a genuine local and community connection.”

The HPA Faculty Big Island Scholarship is awarded to applicants who have lived on Hawai‘i Island for at least two years, and in the state of Hawai‘i for ten years. They also must demonstrate at least 50 percent financial need as determined by the school’s standard financial aid process, which is administered by the NAIS School and Student Services (SSS) system. Here, too, Davis sees faculty as a key factor in determining how to keep the student body diverse. “I think faculty are always interested in having really deserving students who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend,” he says. The scholarship, once awarded, typically extends through a student’s Upper School years, which is one more indicator of the faculty review committee’s faith in a recipient’s potential.

Indeed, potential is one of the overarching qualities that has always drawn Davis to HPA, and that led him to establish the fund in the first place. “There’s a sense that you can actually make a difference in shaping a positive vision of what HPA can be,” he explains. “It’s one of the things you always find when you talk to people who have been here for a little while—they’re really invested in the possibility that this place engenders.”

Davis’ vision includes making sure that in times of change and cultural shift, HPA remains a place for all kinds of students. “We face larger economic disparities than we’ve ever faced before, not only nationally but on the Big Island even more than we used to see. I don’t want HPA to reflect that division. I want to make sure that the community I found when I first showed up on island continues to be welcome and taken care of at HPA.”

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the spring 2019 issue of Ma Ke Kula.