The University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine last week welcomed its largest-ever incoming class, with 77 students receiving stethoscopes and white coats. Given the state’s ongoing shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas, any enrollment bump is encouraging.

Dean Jerris Hedges said in a statement: “We know that if students attend medical school and do their residency training in Hawaii, about 85% will stay here to practice.” Here’s hoping that such a retention rate holds, since a UH report last year pegged the state as about 700 physicians short of what a similar community has on the mainland.

Lessons in citizenship for immigrants

Amid anti-immigration rhetoric at the White House and elsewhere in the U.S., it’s not surprising to see an uptick in green-card holding immigrants feeling a sense of urgency to obtain citizenship. Kudos to the organizers of workshops held here in recent months, with lawyers and recent University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law grads pitching in to help applicants navigate the process. That includes a new nonprofit, The Legal Clinic, which assists low- and moderate-income immigrants. It points out that nearly 1 in 5 Hawaii residents is an immigrant, and over half of the state’s immigrants are naturalized U.S. citizens.