Shep Nelson
In 2023, Goodfellow Bros. awarded scholarships to nine individuals totaling over $89,000 via the Goodfellow Bros. High School Scholarship Fund, which is intended for students at Hawai‘i private schools who are dependents of current Goodfellow employees.
“Chad [Goodfellow, CEO of Goodfellow Bros.] and the Goodfellow family didn’t want people to think they couldn’t live in Hawai‘i because they were priced out [by high
education costs], so they created the high school scholarship fund specifically for our
employees,” said Shep Nelson, Goodfellow Bros. director of equipment and procurement. Hawai‘i’s cost of living is notoriously high so the scholarship can be extremely helpful to local employees with high school-aged children.
The scholarships are geared towards dependents of any Goodfellow employee attending a two- or four-year accredited college or university in pursuit of a construction-related major and demonstrating financial need. Nelson says he often sees applicants “following their mothers’ or fathers’ footsteps [into] the industry, which is pretty cool.”
“The scholarships not only reflect our mission to be the contractor of choice but also to better the entire industry,” says Nelson. “The Goodfellow family really puts their money where their mouth is … something they really, truly believe in is giving back, and all of our employees are grateful for that.”
Both scholarships are managed by Hawai‘i Community Foundation (HCF) and funded by an endowment from Goodfellow. Academic performance plays an important role in choosing scholarship recipients along with community service, as students showcase their activities in “everything ranging from working on their hula hālau to doing code-breaking for government entities,” Nelson says. As the head of Goodfellow’s scholarship team, he sees “a wide variety of talents and super-high academic achievements.”
“It’s a great group,” he says.
