Family Medicine
Student Life
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) named JABSOM’s student-led group a 2026 Program of Excellence, recognizing its work to inspire future family physicians through community service, clinical exposure, education and leadership.
JABSOM was one of 21 Family Medicine Interest Groups nationwide selected for recognition.
Throughout the year via JABSOM’s H.O.M.E. Clinic, students participate in community events and service projects, including the annual Halloween Extravaganza and the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The group also organizes educational opportunities, including a physician subspecialty panel that introduces medical students to the wide range of careers available within family medicine.
MS2 Kyle Tsujimoto currently helps lead the group, and he says those activities reflect a larger culture he found after coming to JABSOM from California.
“JABSOM as a whole does a really great job of fostering students to actually really care about being involved in the community,” Tsujimoto said. “The faculty and the culture that they’ve developed, we come in and it’s just something really amazing that we gravitate towards.”
That experience has also helped Tsujimoto learn more about the people and communities he will serve as a future physician.
“It’s been a really great way for me to do what I can to get involved and to really learn as much as I can about the populations and the people and the communities that we really aim to serve,” he said.
Family medicine remains an important part of JABSOM’s commitment to strengthening primary care in Hawaiʻi. Interest groups give students an opportunity to explore the specialty early in medical school while learning from physicians, upperclassmen and one another.
Tsujimoto credits previous student leaders and faculty, including Dr. Jill Omori, with creating the foundation that led to this year’s recognition.
“I feel like this is really a reflection of that culture that’s been developed and the hard work that my upperclassmen, my predecessors, have put in to building this organization into what it is,” he said.
The award was presented during FUTURE, AAFP’s national conference for family medicine students and residents, held this year in Kansas City, Missouri.
Tsujimoto says the recognition also comes with a responsibility to keep the momentum going.
“It’s really inspiring to see how special the opportunities that we have here are,” he said. “I really just hope to be a part of spreading that and continuing that for future classes at JABSOM.”