Big Island Resident Receives 2020 Community Service Award from an International Honors Student Society
A recent Northcentral University (NCU) graduate received the 2020 Community Service Award from NCU’s Lambda Eta Chapter of Delta Mu Delta, an international honors society open to doctoral students with GPAs above 3.8.
Kailua-Kona resident Joy Escobal-Luea, Ph.D., was recognized by the university’s Delta Mu Delta for her efforts in sending thousands of children books and fundraising a new building at her old school in the Philippines.
“Our book project started in 2015, two years after our home province of Bohol was devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. Besides immediate fundraising activities to help those affected, a visit to the Philippines inspired me to create a nonprofit organization,” Dr. Escobal-Luea said in an NCU press release.
She also partnered with a local public library in Kailua-Kona to donate used children’s books. Dr. Escobal-Luea and her husband and son would pack and ship the library’s old book collections to Bohol.
“It took me a lot of courage to approach one of the library’s board of directors to donate used books and support our project,” she said. “Our team vowed to continue this volunteer project as long as there are still books available at the local library.”
Dr. Escobal-Luea estimates they’ve sent over 2,000 books so far.