HONOLULU - The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards has named Kamehameha Schools Kapalama senior Jacqueline Ho as Hawai'i's top high school youth volunteer for 2008. The awards program, now in its 13th year, recognizes young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. It's sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

The 17-year-old Kamehameha student heads to Washington, D.C. next week to join the honorees from each state and the District of Columbia - one middle school student and one high school student - for a gala awards ceremony at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Of the 102 recipients, 10 will be recognized as America's top youth volunteers. The festivities are scheduled on May 3-6, 2008.

For the past seven years, Ho has dedicated a significant amount of time as a Special Olympics volunteer. Ho's mother serves as vice president of Special Olympics Hawai'i and Ho's father participates in the organization as a weightlifting coach. She credits her parents for inspiring her to get involved.

"I've always been passionate about helping people with special needs and disabilities and helping them to accomplish things that others believe they are not capable of," said Jacqueline Ho, senior at Kamehameha Schools Kapalama. "Working with Special Olympics made me the type of person who stands up for others that are unable to stand up for themselves."

Hawai'i's Megan Nakahara, an eighth-grader at Hawai'i'sÿi Preparatory Academy, garnered honors as the state's top middle school volunteer of the year. She played a key role in a monitoring project that collected data on Hawaiian green sea turtles and raised awareness about the plight of the endangered species.

Ho and Nakahara each won $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip to the award festivities in Washington, D.C.