Seven Hawaii students have been awarded the merit-based 2023 Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship, which aims to mitigate the shortage of health care professionals in Native Hawaiian communities.
The scholarship covers tuition, book costs and other related expenses, in addition to placing the students, who will specialize in most-needed primary and mental health care disciplines, in medically underserved areas of Hawaii, according to a news release.
“This program grows Hawaiian leaders,” wrote Papa Ola Lokahi’s Sheri Daniels in a written statement. “So many alumni have become trusted leaders in not just health care, but Hawaiian-serving agencies and institutions.”
The Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship Program, administered by Papa Ola Lokahi, fosters professionals-in-training to deliver quality, culturally competent health services in their careers. It seeks to develop a workforce of professionals committed to serve the unique health needs of Hawaiian communities, according to the scholarship’s application process website.
Many who graduate with the help of the program continue to work in the communities they were placed in upon graduation beyond their obligated service tenures, and rise to positions of leadership, according to the news release.
“Working in the communities where they can do the most good, graduates have developed a network of kanaka maoli health professionals committed to raising the health status of the lahui,” wrote the director of the Hawaiian Health Scholarship program, Donna-Marie Palakiko, in a written statement. “They refer to, support and lean on one another.”
Four of the awardees — Kai‘olu DeFries, Pomaika‘i Murakami, Ramona “Kahea” Nakagawa and Krisha “Pu‘uwai” Zane — are from Oahu; while the other three — Kamalei Davis, Deshaynee Iseri and Tynell Ornellas — are from Molokai, Kauai and Maui, respectively.
“This cohort is passionate and dedicated to serving the health care needs of remote and rural communities in Hawai‘i,” wrote Palakiko in her statement. “Their communities.”
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Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
