Healthy Keiki Camp returns to Linapuni Elementary School for third year
Despite some heavy rain, this year's AOA students put on the 6th Annual Healthy Keiki Camp at Linapuni Elementary School located at the Towers at Kuhio Park and KPT in Kalihi for the third year in a row. Children from Fern, Kalihi Waena, and Linapuni Elementary attended the event. Almost 100% of the students at Linapuni receive free or reduced-cost lunch and a large percentage of the children in the KPT complex do not go on to higher education. The day camp was held on Saturday, April 14, 2018 and was FREE for all attendees. We provided the kids with health-related activities and promoted the importance of continued education. The activities included a "My Plate" nutrition station where the kids learned about portioning and got to enjoy some healthy snack options, a "Microbes and You" station where they learned about different types of bacteria and parasites and also learned proper hand washing techniques, a medical arts & crafts station where they made brain hats and filled body tracings with the proper organs, an oral health station with fun games about flossing and attacking plaque, a fitness station with fun games & relays and sun safety education, and a Traumatic Brain Injury station where the kids learned about the importance of wearing helmets and got to design "helmets" for eggs for an egg drop activity. All of the kids got a free healthy lunch and the camp was kicked off by a fun exercise/dance/stretching session! A big thank you to our JABSOM students, Julee Omori and her dental hygiene students, Tomoko Hotema from the Pacific Disabilities Center, and Susan Kondo and the rest of the staff at Linapuni Elementary.
Mahalo to our sponsors: HMSA, Hawaii Academy of Family Physicians, Hawaii Pediatric Association for Research and Education Foundation, Dr. Ryan Sato, and Hawaii AAP Chapter
Julia Ayabe
Julia was born and raised in Honolulu, HI and is a 2009 graduate of Punahou School. She completed her undergraduate studies in Molecular Biology at Pomona College in Claremont, CA in 2013. During high school, she began volunteering at Shriners Hospitals for Children, where she developed her interest in medicine. She will be completing her Pediatric Residency at UCLA Medical Center and is especially interested in the intersection of patient and family education and developmental pediatrics. In her free time, Julia enjoys hiking, swimming, sewing, and traveling with family and friends.
Jack Branston
Jack Branston was born and raised in Memphis, TN. He received his B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2006. He was inspired to pursue medicine after working for several years as an EMT for Saint Patrick Hospital and a local ambulance service in Western Montana. He will be completing his Emergency Medicine Residency at the University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals in Salt Lake City, UT. He has a special interest in Wilderness Medicine. In his spare time, Jack enjoys fly-fishing, cycling, and spending time with his friends and family.
Justin Cheng
Justin Cheng was born and raised in Honolulu, HI where he attended Maryknoll School. He went on to earn his B.A. in Biology from the University of Hawaii. Although interested in the natural sciences, Justin was also contemplating mechanical engineering given his long history of automobile restoration, modification, and fabrication. Ultimately, human anatomy and its various applications sparked his interest in medicine, an interest further reaffirmed by research and volunteer experiences. He will be going to UC San Francisco for his residency in Plastic Surgery, which he was drawn to through clinical rotations and research with JABSOM. In his free time, Justin enjoys continuing his hobby of rebuilding and modifying cars, skateboarding, spending time outdoors, and dabbling in photography.
Jared Hara
Jared Hara was born and raised in Waipahu, Hawaii. He graduated from Iolani School in 2010 and attended Santa Clara University where he earned his B.S. in BioEngineering with a minor in Economics, Summa Cum Laude. His interest in cancer medicine started when he saw his own grandfather battle cancer. Throughout his undergraduate and medical school career, he was drawn to cancer medicine for its innate intertwine between humanism and medicine. Most recently, he is investigating the role of radiomics as a potential predictive model for central nervous system tumors as a Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellow at UCSF. He will be completing a Transitional year at Tucson Hospitals in Arizona before heading to the University of Chicago Medical Center for his residency in Radiation Oncology. In his free time, Jared enjoys eating, playing tennis, going to the gym, spending time with family/friends and Netflix.
Daniel Hong
Daniel Hong was born and raised in Honolulu, HI. He graduated from President William McKinley High School in 2010 and attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he earned his B.A. in Biology and Anthropology. His interest in medicine started with a fascination of the human body, fully realized through his volunteer experiences in his community and abroad in Vietnam. He will doing his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Hawaii and hopes to practice in Hawaii in the future. In his free time, he enjoys spending time outdoors with family and friends.
Laura Houk
Laura Houk was born and raised in Kailua, Hawaii where she attended Punahou School. She later went on to earn a B.A. in Psychology from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. After undergraduate education, she spent one year working as a scribe for her father who is a primary care physician and volunteering for medical missions to Nepal and the Philippines which solidified her desire to pursue a career in medicine. She will be completing her Internal Medicine residency at the University of Hawaii with the goal of becoming involved in providing primary care to underserved populations. In her free time she enjoys travel, music and playing with her cat.
Trevor Ideta
Trevor Ideta was born and raised in Fresno, CA. He graduated from Clovis West High School in 2010 and attended UCLA where he majored in Biochemistry. Trevor was interested in medicine from a young age and his passion was confirmed after working as a neurology research assistant and volunteering as a member of the UCLA Student Stroke Team. He is looking forward to his residency in Anesthesiology at the UCLA medical center. During his free time, Trevor enjoys listening to classical music, running, cooking, and watching comedies.
Dane Kurohara
Dane Kurohara was born and raised in Wailuku on the island of Maui, HI. He is a graduate of Henry Perrine Baldwin High School (2010), and earned a B.A in Biology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He was inspired to pursue medicine after volunteering at nursing home facilities, assisting in a small health clinic on Oahu’s north shore, and experiencing health issues among his family members and mentors. These experiences led to his appreciation of the longitudinal development of the physician-patient relationship. He looks forward to completing his Internal Medicine residency training at the University of Hawaii with the goal of one day working in a primary care setting. In his free time, he enjoys bodyboarding, surfing, fishing, and skateboarding, and listening to audiobooks.
Caroline Ritson
Caroline Ritson was born and raised in Kailua, Hawaii. She graduated from Punahou School (2007) and went on to attend New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study (2011). Caroline created a major in Music Cognition, and her studies of music processing in the brain sparked an interest in music therapy, and ultimately medicine. She returned to Hawaii after college and worked as an Emergency Department Scribe and in an ukulele store before entering medical school. At JABSOM, she helped found and lead a new student interest group - JABSOM Artists & Musicians (JAM). She will be pursuing her residency in Psychiatry at the University of Hawaii and is excited to practice in Hawaii in the future. Outside of school Caroline loves to play music (harp, musical saw, ukulele), create jewelry, hike, collect shells, and spend as much time as possible in the ocean.
Taylor Soon-Sutton
Taylor Soon-Sutton was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She graduated from Iolani School and attended the University of Hawaii, where she earned her B.S. in Travel Industry Management. Prior to medical school she worked as an actress in television and film in Los Angeles. She created a medical translation project in California in her grandmother’s namesake to expand translation services to non-English speaking patients in medical settings. She is excited to start her residency in Urology at Creighton University Affiliated Hospitals. In her free time, Taylor enjoys cooking, home renovation and spending time with family and friends.
Harry Wynn-Williams
Harry Wynn-Williams was born and raised in Kailua, HI and graduated from Punahou School in 2005. He attended University of Colorado at Boulder where he obtained a degree in Environmental Science. After college Harry worked various jobs before returning to school to pursue a medical degree. He worked as an Emergency Department Scribe at Queen’s Medical Center where he developed a passion for Emergency Medicine. Harry will be pursuing his residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals and hopes to practice in Hawaii in the future. In his free time Harry enjoys hiking, rock climbing and snowboarding.
AOA Visiting Professor: Dr. Benjamin Gilmer
This year, the JABSOM AOA students invited Dr. Benjamin Gilmer as their visiting professor on Wednesday, April 11, 2018. Dr. Gilmer is a family physician from the Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville, North Carolina and is a Schweitzer Fellow that worked in the Schweitzer hospital in Gabon, Africa. Dr. Gilmer was featured on the PBS podcast "This American Life" with his story "Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde". He gave an inspiring talk to our medical students about "A physician's role for advocacy and social justice," and gave a talk to the general public in the evening entitled "Discovering Dr. Vince Gilmer: Challenging your preconceptions." We encourage all of you to listen to the podcast if you haven't had the chance to hear it before (see link below).
We need your donations!!
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Hawaii Chapter of AOA. Your contributions will help support our community service and mentoring activities, the AOA merit scholarships, first year dues and AOA keys for student inductees, induction ceremony costs, the visiting professor reception, and other chapter activities. Please see attached form or you can go to https://giving.uhfoundation.org/give-now and enter fund #12053604. Mahalo for your generosity!!
About us
2018 Chapter President: Justin Cheng (justinc8@hawaii.edu)
Chapter Councilor: Jill Omori
Email: jill.omori@hawaii.edu
Website: http://hawaiiaoa.wixsite.com/jabsomaoa
Location: 651 Ilalo Street, MEB-OME Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone: 808-692-0932
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HawaiiAOA/