Student Life
JABSOM is looking a little greener thanks to the collective efforts of faculty, students, and staff who came together for a campus cleanup and replanting event last Friday. The initiative grew out of the annual Climate Change Symposium, turning lessons from the classroom into hands-on action.
Dr. Martina Kamaka said the day was about more than just landscaping. “Sometimes you don’t really understand mālama ‘āina until you get your hands in it,” she explained. “This is our students’ second home while they’re in med school, so it’s like taking care of your house.”
Students worked in their learning communities, or moku, alongside mentors and directors to grow native plants and tend to areas in need of restoration. For many, it was the first time experiencing a large-scale, collective effort to care for the campus grounds.
Hannah Collins-Doijode, a second-year medical student and member of Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, said the idea came from wanting to make the symposium more meaningful.
“This year we decided to do something a little bit more hands-on,” she said. “We ended up planting a bunch of native plants all throughout the campus — not only to beautify it, but to make it more functional, sustainable, and connected with indigenous plants.”
The Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, which also includes Lucas Chun, Aia Alvarez-Nishio, Kenji Aoki, and Xavier Heidelberg, intentionally structured the clean-up by Learning Community moku.
Collins-Doijode compared them to “Hogwarts houses,” complete with a sorting ceremony at the start of medical school. “It’s a built-in group of peers and mentors you can go to and connect with,” she explained.
For students like Hannah, the event reflects why she chose JABSOM.
“One of the reasons I always wanted to come here was because of how integrated into the community it is,” she said. “Other medical schools might have their own hospital, but at JABSOM we go out into different hospitals and communities. We’re more ingrained, and we make real connections with patients we hope to serve in our careers.”
Dr. Kamaka believes the effort exemplifies JABSOM’s mission as a Native Hawaiian place of learning.
“It’s so closely tied into who we are,” she said. “We teach students about the importance of connection to the ‘āina. They heard today about how important it is to take care of our planet, not only for the future but also for themselves and their patients. This all just goes hand in hand.”
As the new native plants take root, the hope is that this effort will also grow into a tradition.
“I’m very excited about this,” Dr. Kamaka said. “I hope we can make it an annual thing.”