Obama's Sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, is the Special Guest of Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship Ceremony

President Barack Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, will be the special guest at an upcoming ceremony for a scholarship named after their mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, Mercer Island High School class of 1960.

The ceremony, which will be from noon to 2 p.m. April 20 at the Mercer Island Community and Event Center, according to the Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship Fund website.

Dunham was a 1960 graduate of Mercer Island High School and a life-long learner with a strong belief in economic and social equality for people around the world - especially women.

The Stanley Ann Scholarship Fund, now in its fourth year, was established by her schoolmates and awards a $5,000 college scholarship to a female student currently enrolled in the senior class at MIHS who demonstrates a passion and commitment to the values and goals embodied by Dunham's work. Dunham died in 1995.

Read Mercer Island Patch's profile of the Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship Fund.

Dunham met and married Obama's father, after whom he was named, when they were students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, but the marriage was short-lived. Dunham then finished school at UH, where she met and married her second husband, Lolo Soetoro.

After finishing her studies at University of Hawaii, Dunham and her son, Barack Obama, followed her husband to Indonesia, where Maya Soetoro-Ng was born.

Dunham, also known by Ann Dunham Soetoro, lived and worked in Indonesia helping villagers develop self-sustaining economic programs using their skills in traditional crafts and toolmaking. In 2009, Soetoro-Ng wrote the forward to the book based on Dunham's doctoral dissertation, "Surviving against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia."

Soetoro-Ng has been an instructor at the University of Hawaii and published a children's book. 

Mercer Island High School student Hannah Winkelman interviewed Soetoro-Ng about Dunham's years at Mercer Island High School for the school newspaper, The Islander. The Mercer Island Reporter published an edited version of the article on Tuesday. 

Online:

Mercer Island Reporter: President Obama’s sister to visit Mercer Island to attend Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship award ceremony

If you go:

The Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship Fund will hold a community event to honor outstanding MIHS graduating female students and to award the 4th Annual Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship. Special Guest will be Maya Soetoro-Ng author, educator and daughter of Stanley Ann Dunham (MIHS class of ’60). 
Katy Sewall of KUOW-NPR will be the MIHS alumni speaker at the award ceremony.

It will be Saturday, April 20 from noon – 2 pm at the Mercer Island Community and Event Center 8236 SE 24th St.Mercer Island. Please rsvp to: dunhamscholarship@gmail.com