Through listening to Jaxonʻs story, our board got to connect with this student and hear how close they were to our island home and how he resonated with Bottles4College’s 4 pillars and to our mission. We also got to see his dedication through the years, juggling many different hats as a student, athlete, and more; and cannot wait to see him further all of his passions going into college.

Jaxon Pang will be attending Arizona State University to major in aeronautical management technology (professional flight) and play division one roller hockey for ASU. This year’s B4C Grand Prize Awardee is Myron B. Thompson Academy’s Class of 2025 Valedictorian, stands as Hawaii’s NHL Youth Advisor, and stood a National Honors Society President.

Bottles4College aims to support students on all pathways, whether it be academic or creative, we want to support your dreams and goals. We also know how hard it can be to overcome obstacles and the strength needed to persevere and work to make a change. Raphael Stark was selected for his work to raise awareness and for his dedication to creating a voice for his community through his nonprofit, CHATS. This organization works to make a safe space for youth and spreading education and support for those with speech challenges. We cannot wait to see what Raphael will be able to create and we commend him for his efforts to bring students and communities together.

Raphael Stark is a homeschool student graduating Magna Cum Laude and will be majoring in film production at the Savannah College of Arts and Design.

This year, we get to celebrate our first ever neighbor island recipient.

Maui is a special place for Bottles4College. Just over a year ago to we delivered our Bottles4MAUI disaster relief funding directly to those affected by the Lahaina fires, with the Aloha from our Oahu community that helped us collect Over 100,000 cans and bottles, we were able to support a family and an individual working in the burn zone to be begin rebuilding. while it was just a small step towards helping rebuild, we are grateful to have had the opportunity to do so.

Having a connection to community is something we take very strongly, and is what helped Nathalie Mae-Leano standout. Her dedication to her community and to her goals are commendable, and we are excited to see what her future holds.

Nathalie Mae-Leano is graduating Summa Cum Laude with Academic and CTE honors from Maui High. She is majoring in pre-med at the University of Portland.

This year, Bottles4College launched our Bottles4College 4 Schools Program. This is a year long activation partnership we do with schools to give their students the opportunity to spearhead environmental efforts through Bottles4College at their school and community.
This program aims to show students why environmental work is important, what it takes to create these efforts, and further their education. Students also receive student volunteer hours through gaining hands-on experiences in sustainability work. As an added goal, if a school recycles enough throughout the year, they unlock a Bottles4College scholarship specifically for a student from their school.

In the 2025 school year, one of the schools we launched this pilot program at was Kailua High. Through the collaboration with their student body and their leadership class, the school created a scholarship for a student they nominated.

Mason Yamane is graduating Summa Cum Laude from Kailua High School and was a part of his school’s National Honor Society with multiple recognitions including the Peter R Marsh Silent Service Servant Award. He will be majoring in Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Bottles4College partnered with two schools in our launch of the Bottles4College 4 Schools Program, one of them was Kapolei High School. With our community looking for a Bottles4College location to support on the west side of Oahu, we are very excited to hold this partnership.

In the first year of this program, Bottles4College presented Kapolei High with a $500 scholarship for their recycling efforts. The school chose to nominate the student who was leading the 4 Schools Program.

Bailey-Madison Meana is graduating Cum Laude from Kapolei High School with academic and CTE honors and has gotten her Nurse Aide license with HPH. She will be majoring in pre-med at Oregon Tech University.

Bottles4College is all about supporting those who want to give back. Joelle Angelica Evasco’s passion and dedication to wanting to give back to her community and to the Earth stood out. Her goal to support wildlife and care for them. Her incredibly bright personality shine in her video essay and really showed how much she cares about her community.

Joelle Angelica Evasco is graduating Summa Cum Laude and as Waianae High’s Valedictorian. She has been a part of many clubs including the Waianae High student council. She will be majoring in Animal Science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

In 2021, Bottles4College held its very first recycling drive at King Intermediate right down the road. We were still only dreaming of being able to recycle a million cans and bottles and were nervous to hold a drive to that scale. But, thanks to our community and to a wonderful group of volunteers, we had an incredible event, recycling over 1 ton of cans and bottles that rainy day. One of those volunteers, despite being out of her comfort zone, joined us for many events when we were first growing, and since has shown her own personal growth. Then, we could only talk and hope to be able to give out scholarships through our environmental efforts, but now that hope is a reality and is being able to support those same students.

Kaylee Cieri is graduating Summa Cum Laude and as Castle High’s Class of 2025 Valedictorian. She served as a member of her school’s National Honor Society, Thespian Honors Society, was an honors performance arts students, and has been received multiple honors recognitions. She will be majoring in stage management at PACE university in New York.