Today marked the third year I have hosted a lunch for my former organ students who are away at college on the mainland but home for Christmas in Hawaii. We could have had as many as six (or seven!) students there, but several have already returned to school. I invited Naomi Yuen-Schat and her mom to represent her brothers who are in Florida training for swimming and diving during the winter break. Naomi played her first entire church service just yesterday at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church!

Here’s an update on all of them:

Joey Fala is in his second year at Yale University pursuing a master’s degree in organ performance, after having graduated from Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute with bachelor and master’s degrees in architecture. He will be giving his fourth and final graduate recital on February 5th, 2017, in Woolsey Hall, which I will be attending. He is presently the organ scholar at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Norwalk, CT and will be returning to Hawaii in March as the guest recitalist for the Annual Organ Concert for the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists.

Jordan McCreary is a senior at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR and has applied to 19 different medical schools. He was home to play the piano for his mom’s wedding on New Year’s Eve.

Joshua Yuen-Schat just returned from a semester abroad in China, and as we ate lunch, his sister showed us videos of his latest skill: diving. He is a junior at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH, majoring in international environmental science.

Daniel Yuen-Schat is a freshman at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY, studying electrical engineering.

Andrew Moore is a freshman at Worcester College in Massachusetts. He played Christmas Eve services at his home church, Waiokeola Congregational Church in Kahala. Unfortunately, Andrew and his mom were in a car accident on the way to the restaurant and were unable to join us. Next year, okay?

Christopher Lindsay is a freshman at the University of Southern California, studying Astronomy and Environmental Science and was recently on local television, as you can see below. In addition to getting a full four-year scholarship to USC in a special honors program for high school seniors, he was recently awarded a $50,000 scholarship by the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. Unfortunately, Christopher had already returned to school and couldn’t attend the luncheon. However, congratulations are in order because Christopher passed the driving test!

Actually Melody Lindsay, Christopher’s sister, also studied with me for a summer and is a graduate research assistant at Montana State University, in addition to keeping up her harp playing. As you will see and hear by the video above, Melody also won $50,000 from the Davidson Institute, in addition to a $30,000 fellowship from NASA and most recently, the Beverly Ferguson Award to an outstanding graduate student in microbiology and immunology. Check out the story here on the NASA Award, and click here for the Ferguson Award.

Congratulations to all former students!