On Saturday, July 18, medical students, legislators, instructors and guests celebrated at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) 50th Anniversary Scholarship Fundraising Gala—officially delcared “John A. Burns School of Medicine Day” in Hawaiʻi.
“I know as a graduate of UH Mānoa, I am proud of the John A. Burns School of Medicine,” Hawaiʻi Governor David Ige told the audience of some 1,300 people at the Sheraton Waikīkī Resort.
Recognizing the role former Governor Ben Cayetano played in shepherding the construction of the medical school’s Kakaʻako campus in 2003, Governor Ige added, “I know Governor Cayetano and every governor before me has supported the John A. Burns School of Medicine.”
Governor Cayetano and former first lady Vicky Cayetano were among the scholarship supporters attending the gala. The event raised $750,000 for scholarships for JABSOM students, 90 percent of whom are from Hawaiʻi. Community leaders and representatives of Hawaiʻi hospitals were there, too. From the school’s beginning, hospitals throughout Hawaiʻi have provided the clinical training sites in a healing education partnership with JABSOM.
“It was heartwarming to see the outpouring of support for the school and to think about the motivations and principles foremost in the minds and hearts of the school’s founders,” said Patricia Blanchette, a JABSOM alumna and the founding chair of the Department of Geriatric Medicine. Blanchette, who has gone on to serve as chief executive officer of the JABSOM faculty practice plan and now associate director of the UH Cancer Center, continued, “These are themes that persist to this day, and become ever more important as time goes by.”
“We have an awesome alumni and faculty group who did much to advance the school through this 50th celebration,” said JABSOM Dean Jerris Hedges. “It was not just what happened this weekend, but the hard work, evidenced in the planning for and executing on a myriad of events building over the last four years which led to this success.”
For the full story, go to the John A. Burns School of Medicine website.
See more photos from the gala.
—By Tina Shelton
