High School Student Awarded Sustainable Futures Scholarship 

PRESS RELEASE: Hagatna (GU) 16 August 2022 

Guåhan Sustainable Culture (GSC)  awarded its second year Sustainable Futures Scholarship of $1,000.00 to St. John’s School senior Chao (Grace) Shane Chang. GSC’s scholarship award program recognizes outstanding students who have given their time and energy helping the organization work towards its mission for a more food sovereign Guåhan and are committed to working for a more just, equitable, and environmentally sustainable world. 

“This past year has been challenging for our students and our community, and through it all Grace has consistently devoted her time after school and throughout the summer to help with our programs, which in turn helped those in our community,” said GSC President Michelle Crisostomo. Grace has a passion for environmental sustainability and wants to pursue a career in environmental engineering. “We hope this award will help her as she starts her college experience and pursues her academic and professional goals,” Michelle continued.

Grace has spent over 289 hours of volunteer service with GSC. She shares, “through my summer internship program at Guåhan Sustainable Culture, I learned about the importance of sustainability, food sovereignty, and the life-affirming value of growing and eating locally. It felt really meaningful to teach other people how to provide their own food security; and, in a larger sense, I learned the enduring lesson that this contributes to what we can all do as global citizens to give back to our precious environment that gives us so much.”

Pictured left to right: Kristin Oberiano - GSC Board Member, Marlyn Oberiano - GSC Co-founder and Vice President, Chao (Grace) Shane Chang, Michelle Crisostomo - GSC Co-founder and President

About Guåhan Sustainable Culture

Guåhan Sustainable Culture (formally organized as Oceanic Ascent, Education, Inc) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization recognized by the Guam Department of Revenue and Taxation and the US Internal Revenue Service.

GSC provides educational opportunities to people of all ages who are interested in learning about how to live more healthy and sustainable lives while being more food secure. GSC aims to protect our environment, reduce our community’s reliance on imported food, increase access to fresh local food, and nourish our people by engaging community members in cultivating self-sustaining food systems through small-scale family farms and gardens as well as community gardens.