Imi Ho'ola Post-Baccalaureate Program welcomes 12

Class expanded to help meet physician shortage

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
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Posted: Jul 27, 2010

Members of the incoming class
Members of the incoming class
A successful program that helps college graduates from Hawai‘i and the Pacific overcome barriers to medical school is expanding at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).
 
The Imi Ho’ola Post-Baccalaureate Program formally welcomes 12 students into its incoming class this Friday, July 30, 2010. The students will be presented at an Open House from 5:30-7:00 p.m. at JABSOM’s Medical Education Building Auditorium in Kaka’ako.
 
Both Imi Ho‘ola and JABSOM’s first-year medical student class are being expanded by two students in 2010 to help meet a greater demand for physicians in Hawai‘i. 
 
Imi Ho‘ola, which translated from the Native Hawaiian language means “those who seek to heal,” recruits college graduates from socially, educationally or economically disadvantaged backgrounds who show promise to become physicians serving the communities they come from. Participants spend 12 months in an intensive course of study to improve their knowledge of science and the humanities. Students who complete the challenging course are admitted to JABSOM.
 
Now in its third decade, Imi Ho‘ola has helped to graduate 213 physicians, 40% of whom are Native Hawaiians. This year’s class includes 10 men and two women who are residents of the Big Island, Maui, Kaua‘i, Moloka‘i, O‘ahu, Guam and Rota, which is a part of the Northern Mariana Islands.