Currier Empowerment Scholarship supports Hawaiʻi Island students

Jeff and Katie Currier first found harmony through music. As members of the same band in Flint, Michigan, they learned early what it meant to collaborate and to build something together. That shared rhythm carried them forward through family and careers shaped by blue-collar roots. It would later guide their commitment to giving back.

“We don’t forget where we came from,” Jeff says. “That informs every decision we make.”

This includes the decision to establish the Jeff and Kathryn Currier Empowerment Scholarship, which will support Hawai‘i Community College students pursing a degree in nursing, auto body repair and painting, automotive mechanics technology, carpentry, diesel mechanics, and electrical installation and maintenance technology.

Both raised in households tied to Michigan’s manufacturing economy, the Curriers grew up with a clear understanding of hard work. Those early lessons stayed with them as they built their lives together, moving from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest in pursuit of opportunity, raising a family and navigating the balance between creativity and practicality that defined their early years.

A legacy grounded in responsibility

“Our philanthropy comes from a strong sense of obligation to a community that has been so welcoming to us,” Jeff says. “We know what it means to grow up in a working-class family and the struggles that come with it.”

The Curriers made a deliberate choice to support trade-based education, healthcare training and community college programs, fields that lead to durable careers, as well as serve essential needs across Hawaiʻi.

For the Curriers, philanthropy is not transactional, it is relational. It is rooted in empathy, and a belief that success carries responsibility.

“Our past informs who we are today,” Katie says. “That perspective keeps us grounded and reminds us why this matters.”

Giving shaped by lived experience

Jeff’s career in technology – which took him from Flint to Seattle and into leadership roles at Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, SoFi and now as Chief Technology Officer of Chime – opened doors that once felt unimaginable. Katie’s path included cosmetology school, years of raising their family and later returning to college as an adult to earn a fine arts degree.

“We didn’t follow linear paths,” Katie says. “And that’s exactly why we believe so strongly in multiple entry points into education. Trades, certifications, community colleges – they all matter.”

The Curriers’ three children reflect those same varied pathways, from law school to healthcare certifications and trade-based careers. Those experiences reinforced their belief that flexible, accessible education can change lives, especially during moments of economic uncertainty or personal transition.

“Our giving mirrors our own lives,” Jeff says. “We’re not interested in one-size-fits-all solutions. We want to support education that meets people where they are and helps them stay rooted in their communities.”

Katie agrees, adding that her experience in cosmetology school and college were important to her “personal sovereignty,” contributing to her development and individuation.

Investing in Hawaiʻi’s future

Now splitting time between Seattle and Kona, the Curriers see Hawaiʻi Island as a place of both deep community and urgent need, particularly in healthcare, workforce development and economic sustainability.

A core goal of their philanthropy is to help students build careers that allow them to remain on the islands and earn a livable wage.

“We want people to be able to stay,” Jeff says. “Healthcare workers, tradespeople, technicians – these are careers Hawaiʻi needs, and they’re careers that can’t be outsourced.”

Katie adds that trades also offer adaptability. “They’re global skills,” she says. “They give people flexibility across different economies and stages of life. That kind of resilience matters.”