Fall 2024 Yamamura Scholar: Kayla Ondo

The Fall 2024 Douglas S. Yamamura Scholarship for a STEM project was awarded to Kayla Ondo, a graduate of Kaiser High School, who is currently majoring in Psychology at UH Mānoa. Her project, “Is your intelligence real or artificial?,” explores the idea that “individuals are moving towards a more digital way of thinking,” she said, continuing, “I want to investigate ChatGPT’s capabilities to understand if this AI tool is complementing our intelligence as college students or, rather, limiting our incentive to learn, achieve, and grow, creating a superficial understanding within ourselves.”

Each semester, UROP awards the prestigious Douglas S. Yamamura Scholarship to the Project funding recipients with the best reviewed STEM or non-STEM Project (selected in alternating fashion). The scholarship was established with a generous endowment from the estate of Paul T. Yamamura to support scholarly work at UHM, and preference is given to undergraduate students who have graduated from a high school in Hawai‘i.