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The Power of Belief
JABSOM is creating opportunities to ensure that a medical degree is an attainable dream for all.
When David Horio, MD, F(ACHI), ‘69 decided he wanted to become a doctor, he didn’t have to think about whether he could afford the cost of medical school. There were no financial barriers standing between him and his dreams. When he enrolled at JABSOM in 1965, the cost of tuition and fees was just $208. In today’s dollars, it would equate to $1,830.
That’s not the reality for students today. Educational costs have skyrocketed and a medical degree often comes with crippling debt. Many aspiring doctors have to grapple with whether they can afford their dreams. That same tuition and fees is now $37,444. And the cost-of-attendance for a first-year medical student is $73,950, if they live off campus. That number has jumped nearly $10,000 since 2018.
But JABSOM is committed to creating a path to medical school for any student in need, with the help of scholarships, financial opportunities, and donors like Horio, who want to ensure that a medical degree is attainable for all.
A whopping 93 percent of students at JABSOM receive some form of financial aid or scholarships - and JABSOM is equally committed to reducing the debt burden for graduates. Forty-seven percent of JABSOM graduates leave school with no medical debt at all, which puts JABSOM in the 90th percentile for all medical schools. This a huge improvement over the last decade, as 76.5 percent of graduates left with medical education debt in 2018. Of the current students who do leave with some debt, the average amount of debt is $152,127 which is below the 20th percentile for medical school graduates.
Horio is now an assistant professor in JABSOM’s pathology department and established the Shigeru and May Horio Memorial Scholarship Endowment in 1976 to provide financial assistance to medical students so that no student was shut out from medical school based on financial need. The scholarship fund honors his late parents, who were strong proponents of medical education.
“I understand how difficult it is for students to be able to pay for medical school,” he said. “And I want them to have the same opportunities that I had, especially if they don’t have the resources to attend medical school.”
Horio also hopes that scholarships enable JABSOM graduates to pursue less lucrative, but much-needed careers in medicine, like primary care in Hawaiʻi.
“We really need primary care physicians here but unfortunately, that path is not as high paying as other specialties," said Horio. “Having scholarships lessens the debt for recipients and makes it possible for them to do what they really want to do, without needing to think as much about a paycheck.”
Margaret and Robert Mirsky also established a scholarship to help boost the number of medical providers in Hawaiʻi. They’ve lived in the state since 1983 and wanted to honor their late daughter, who passed away in July 2023, by supporting talented students who could help boost the number of practicing physicians in the community.
“We love living here and feel that we really need doctors in our community more than anything else,” said Margaret Mirsky. “Illness touches so many of us and it can be such a mystery when people get sick and we need more people who can help families navigate that challenge. We want to give back and give a future to this community.”
Many of JABSOM’s financial assistance programs aim to serve the communities of Hawaiʻi and to empower students to give back to the places and people they love. Several of the financial aid and scholarship programs at JABSOM are strategically designed to expand access to health care in Hawaiʻi and ensure that graduates who want to serve their home communities can afford to do so.
“Scholarships are not only critical to keeping JABSOM affordable, but they also help retain the physicians we train. By reducing the financial burden on our students, we increase the likelihood that they will build their lives and careers here rather than relocate to the continent, where the cost of living is often lower,” said Sam Shomaker, MD, JD, Dean of the John A. Burns School of Medicine.
The following is a sampling of some of the financial opportunities at JABSOM that are serving students - and the state of Hawaiʻi.
Keeping Doctors in Hawaiʻi
As Hawaiʻi continues to grapple with a physician shortage, many of the financial opportunities at JABSOM are designed to address this challenge. Around 22 percent of JABSOM scholarships include a service commitment to Hawaiʻi. In 2026, 70 scholarship or financial recipients have committed to practicing medicine in Hawaiʻi. Less than ten years ago, that number was zero.
The Freeman Foundation is increasing the number of practicing doctors in Hawaiʻi by offering financial support to JABSOM graduates who start their careers in Hawaiʻi. The program has partnered with JABSOM since 2020 and has supported 18 graduates with a total of over $700,000 in awards towards their student loans if they practice medicine in Hawaiʻi for at least two years following their residency or fellowship program. Like, JABSOM graduate Shelley Wong, MD, who was born and raised in Honolulu and wants to care for the people and communities who have shaped her medical career. Wong is able to start her career in child and adolescent psychiatry in Hawaiʻi thanks to a Freeman Foundation award.
The Nohara-Abaya Geriatrics Fellowship Award is removing the financial barriers for those seeking to care for kūpuna. This award supports young doctors who want to work with the elderly population. Hawaiʻi’s aging population is outpacing that of the rest of the country - and is only continuing to grow. Today, around 21 percent of Hawaiʻi’s population is 65 or older, but by 2035, nearly one-third of the state's residents will be age 65 or older. This reality is rapidly increasing the need for specialized healthcare for the geriatric community. Trace “Kaimana” Kalei, MD, who grew up in Hawaiʻi and graduated from JABSOM wants to care for the senior members of his community. This award has helped him offset the high cost of education, residency, and a fellowship so he can afford to pursue the career he wants and help fill this need for Hawaiʻi’s aging population.
The Kauaʻi Medical Training Track aims to expand access to rural and underserved communities in Hawaiʻi, where there’s a shortage of healthcare providers. Due to the lack of both primary and specialty healthcare providers on neighbor islands, seeking care is costly and the delayed access to care results in poor health outcomes. The Kauaʻi Medical Training Track is tackling this problem by integrating our students into the Kauaʻi community. The majority of their medical education and training is done on Kauaʻi so they are ready to serve the population on the Garden Isle and other neighbor islands upon returning from residency. The program provides a full, four-year scholarship to JABSOM to six students who return to Kauaʻi for at least four years after residency to practice. In the near future, this program will have produced an estimated 30 JABSOM-trained physicians who will be ready to care for the people of Kauaʻi.
Expanding Health Care in Hawaiʻi
To address the growing shortage of medical practitioners in Hawaiʻi, JABSOM developed the the Healthcare Education Loan Repayment Program (HELP) in collaboration with the Healthcare Association of Hawaiʻi and the Department of Health to repay student loan debt for health professionals who are licensed or certified to provide care to patients in Hawaiʻi. The $30 million financial aid program is funded by the Hawaiʻi State Legislature and provides loan repayments up to $50,000 for healthcare professionals who commit to practicing in Hawaiʻi for at least two years.
Partnering with Health Organizations to Make Dreams Come True
When Quan Lac’s grandmother got sick, an emergency room doctor talked his family through her condition and the treatment she would need. Despite the fact that some of his family members speak limited English, the doctor was able to deliver a clear explanation and ease the immense stress they were feeling. That was the moment Lac knew he wanted to go into medicine himself - so he could play that role for other families. He wanted to go to JABSOM and stay in Hawaiʻi, because he wanted to serve the community that raised him. There was just one problem: the cost of tuition. Lac’s family moved to Hawaiʻi from Vietnam when he was a toddler. His parents didn’t speak any English and neither had finished middle school. When he was accepted with a full-tuition scholarship from Kaiser Permanente, he knew he could make his dreams a reality. The scholarship from Kaiser Permanente is one of many scholarships that are making medical school a reality for students like Lac, who have all the talent, drive, and belief they need to succeed in the medical field and just need some financial assistance to make their dreams come true.