HONOLULU—University of Hawai'i women's volleyball player
Rika Okino has earned the prestigious, 2020 Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies (HCES) Student Engineer of the Year Award.
Okino, who was the Rainbow Wahine starting libero this past season, has excelled both on the court and in the classroom throughout her volleyball career. On the court, this past season, she appeared in 29 matches and recorded career highs of 256 digs, 81 assists, and 14 service aces while averaging 2.46 digs per set. She was named Big West Defensive Player of the Week on Nov. 4, 2019 and helped the Rainbow Wahine advance to the Sweet 16 of this past season's NCAA tournament. Okino, who redshirted as a freshman, will forego her final year of eligibility in 2020 since she is slated to graduate with a degree in civil engineering this May.
In the classroom. She came to UH as one of Kalani High School's valedictorian for the Class of 2016. Since then she has been recognized as a Big West Academic All-Conference selection in 2019 and a UH Scholar-Athlete for four years while a member of the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team.
She has interned with both AECOM, where she worked on geotechnical and design aspects at the North Ramp of the Anderson AFB (Guam), and Wilson Okamoto Corporation, where she worked on water retention and runoff projects on various Hawaii entities. She is excited about new challenges after graduation and the stimulating innovative and error-free work in the engineering fields that will affect the lives of many in our community.
The faculty members of the College of Engineering, University of Hawaii, nominate outstanding engineering students for this particular award. The nominations are then transmitted to a selection committee consisting of three members - the Assistant Dean of the College of Engineering, and two designated representatives from the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers (HSPE). The award is conferred at the HCES Engineers' Week Banquet. The first award was given in 1987.
Those considered are senior students of the Departments of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. It some instances it also includes those who have just recently graduated from the College of Engineering. The selection committee considers students with an impressive set of credentials, their academic performance, service and accomplishments rendered during their student days, scholarships and other recognition they received, and their participation in extra curricular activities.
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