Makabe/Shimotori Endowed Scholarship

Minao Shimotori and his wife, Ayako Makabe Shimotori, were among those Japanese-American U.S. citizens who were told to close down their businesses and report to an internment camp during WWII. It was in the Tule Lake, CA camp that Lois Carole Shimotori was born. To make amends for that shameful chapter in American history, in 1988 the U.S. government issued a formal apology, followed up in 1990 with payments of $20,000 to each living Japanese-American camp survivor. Ms. Shimotori used her reparation payment to start this scholarship fund. Recalling her own difficult days as a single parent raising a daughter and going back to college at the same time (she received her Elementary Education degree in 1972), Ms. Shimotori designated this scholarship for Nevada resident reentry students who are single mothers, and have a minimum GPA of 3.0. Ms. Shimotori passed away at the age of 76 in December, 2018. Her daughter, Teriko, continues the scholarship in honor of her family.