Pictured: Members of the incoming ʻImi 2017-2018 class.
The new academic year began on August 11, 2017 at the ʻImi Hoʻōla Open House. ʻImi Hoʻōla (“Those who seek to heal”) is a University of Hawaiʻi (UH) program for college graduates who are aspiring physicians. They will earn admission to medical school at the UH John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) if they successfully complete the rigorous one-year ʻImi Hoʻōla Post-Baccalaureate Program, a course of study in science and the humanities. The class of 12 includes six men and six women. They are from ʻEwa Beach (2), Kailua, Honolulu (4), Guam (2), Waiʻanae, Kapolei and Wailuku, Maui.
ʻImi, turning 45 next year, prepares promising students from ethnically, socially or economically disadvantaged backgrounds for the rigors of medical school. A primary goal of ʻImi is to enrich the diversity of the physician workforce of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific, and its results are impressive. As of this date, ʻImi, run by the JABSOM Department of Native Hawaiian Health, has set 256 doctors (as of today) on the path to becoming healers. Many of those ʻImi and JABSOM alum serve in the disadvantaged or underserved communities they came from.
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ʻImi Grads '17 from UHMed on Vimeo.