In October, at the invitation of the City of Ichiki-Kushikino, Japan, an award of special recognition and commendation was presented to Marc Del Piero ’75, J.D. ’78 of Pebble Beach, California. 

Del Piero was honored by the mayor and city assembly during Ichiki-Kushikino’s anniversary celebration for his decades-long sustained effort to provide funding and support for the Salinas-Kushikino Sister City Association’s student ambassador exchange program.

The program, founded in the mid 1980s provides awards of cultural and educational exchange scholarships to academically exceptional students from high schools throughout the Salinas Valley, the Monterey Peninsula, and North Monterey County to visit Japan; and for exceptional students from Japan to visit Monterey County. More than 250 Monterey County student and young Japanese scholars have been awarded exchange scholarships to participate in the program.