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What began as a weeklong summer experience at JABSOM turned into something much bigger for Hawaii Baptist Academy student Callie Kawaguchi. She attended JABSOM’s Medical Diagnosis and Treatment (MDT) program, an immersive, hands-on experience that gives students a real taste of medical school. Inspired by her experience, months later, Kawaguchi helped organize the Convention for Future Medical Leaders, drawing nearly 100 high school students from across Hawaiʻi to learn about careers in health care.
“They really catered to making sure that we learned about med school,” Kawaguchi said of her MDT experience. “No one had ever told me what it really was about. I found learning about medical school valuable.”
The weeklong MDT program, open to current 10th–12th graders who are at least 16 years old, introduces students to problem-based learning, anatomy demonstrations, clinical skills labs, simulated patient interactions, and computerized manikin simulations. Participants learn to describe the signs and symptoms of illnesses common in Hawaiʻi, perform basic clinical skills like measuring vital signs and listening to heart and lung sounds, and practice interviewing and counseling patients.
“I was really curious,” Kawaguchi said. “And I think I really got what they were talking about.”
She not only left the program with a firm desire to pursue medicine, but she also had an idea.
“There have been career days just for your own high school,” she said. “But I wanted a convention just for medical stuff and for high schoolers around the island.”
The result was the Convention for Future Medical Leaders, an event that brought students together to hear from physicians, learn about medical pathways, and better understand what it takes to enter the field.
JABSOM had a big presence at Kawaguchi’s convention. Dr. Jaimie Tom and Craig Morimoto represented JABSOM Admissions, and medical students Jan Augustine Aurelio, Jenny Nguyen, and Lauryn Liao held a talk story session with students interested in following in their footsteps, while Dr. Kelley Withy spoke about all the ways AHEC can help high schoolers achieve their dreams in medicine. Dr. Damon Sakai, director of the MDT program, shared experiences from his career in Internal Medicine and more about the weeklong program that inspired Kawaguchi to create this event.
“The goal of the MDT program is to inspire an interest in learning about healthcare,” Sakai said. “This is one way that it’s been able to do that. Hawaiʻi continues to face a significant healthcare workforce shortage, so early exposure programs like MDT are increasingly important.”
By giving students a realistic view of medical education, JABSOM’s hope is that it will spark interest that leads to future physicians caring for Hawaiʻi. It already made a difference with Kawaguchi.
“There’s currently a medical worker shortage in Hawaiʻi,” Kawaguchi said. “And I wanted other people to get a little closer to what they want to do in the future.”
As for her own dreams, Kawaguchi has her sights set on JABSOM.
“I would really love to apply,” she said. “If I don’t get in, I’ll try again.”