Mana Wahine Wednesday: Chaminade WBB & Tennis player Selena Buttery

HONOLULU – Chaminade’s Selena Buttery is no stranger to being extra involved.

From Brockway, Pennsylvania – a small town about two hours outside of Pittsburgh – the college senior is preparing to finish up her degree in data science more than 4,500 miles from where she grew up. Halfway across the world, playing two different college varsity sports and still crushing it in and around the classroom, her life remains just as busy back at home.

A member of the women’s basketball and women’s tennis programs, Buttery has a large chunk of her schedule spoken for with practices, weights, travel and competition already. Add in six Academic All-PacWest selections in her three years with the Silverswords, duties as the president of Chaminade’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and a pristine 4.0 GPA, the senior still finds time to continue helping the kids back in Brockway.

Dating back to her junior year of high school, Buttery has run Project Grace for Kids, a 5013c Non-Profit in Pennsylvania. After taking a volunteer trip to Pittsburgh where she sorted various donated school supplies to distribute to kids in need, she saw an opportunity to give back in her hometown.

“Nobody was doing that on that kind of scale in my town,” Buttery remembered. “I thought I’ll just start up something really small … So, I created the name, it was called Project Grace, originally.”

Buttery, assisted by her parents, went on to put on what she described as a “quick little event” under the elementary school pavilion back in Brockway where students could come and get school supplies that had been donated to the cause. From there, Project Grace flourished into doing events nearly every season – including this year’s fifth annual Fall Fest coming up on October 25.

Buttery and three kids at Sunrise Coffee Bar in Brockway, PA for an event for Project Grace for Kids. | Photo Credit: Selena Buttery

Fall Fest, according to Buttery, involves a similar concept to the program’s school supplies distribution but with winter clothing for kids in need ahead of the snowy Pennsylvania winter months.

“We give gloves, scarves, winter items to kids,” she said. “But we also have them come and paint pumpkins and do a bunch of fun things so that it’s inclusive for all kids, whether you need [the event] socioeconomically or not.”

Despite being plopped in the middle of the ocean and preparing for the women’s basketball team’s regular season-opener on November 14, Buttery still is running Fall Fest from afar.

“My parents are really good about helping me,” she acknowledged. “Right now, my dad is the only one home, my mom is at the Pentagon, so he’s really helping me out a lot.”

Buttery still takes the lead, piecing together spreadsheets and schedules for arrivals to make for an easy list to follow for anyone willing to assist her in giving back. The motivation to continue her philanthropic efforts from across the globe despite already being as busy as possible comes from a very simple place.

“I really just like helping kids and working with them,” Buttery said plainly.

Giving back to the next generation is also part of the senior’s professional plan.

Originally a childhood education major at her arrival in the islands, Buttery switched to majoring in Data Science with the goal to ultimately end up working for UNICEF.

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, or UNICEF, has worked to advocate for and help children across various aspects of life for more than 80 years. With a specific interest in the education work, Buttery has already done multiple deep dives and analysis on UNICEF’s work in the field while studying at Chaminade.

“There’s really good opportunities here for that,” she said of CUH’s connections to UNITAR and getting involved with UNICEF.

Even with her charity efforts maxed out, Buttery persists on the courts and in classrooms. With a year left in the islands, she’s just trying to soak it all in – even if she needs to sneak in a little spreadsheet building and studying in with the few relaxing hours her schedule sometimes allows.

Buttery & teammates enjoy the beach together. | Photo Credit: Selena Buttery