Inspire 2024 ANNUAL DONOR REPORT

Pali Momi: A Head Start in Health Care

Waipahu High student Leila Manibog learns how to run a screening procedure from Nicole Tabaranza, Waipahu High Academic Health Center clinical assistant.

It’s easy to miss from the outside. But take a closer look, and you’ll find something at Waipahu High School that you won’t see almost anywhere else in the country.

Across from the administration building is the school’s new Academic Health Center. While it’s located on the school campus, it is a fully functioning clinic that provides primary care and OB-GYN services to the public.

Hawaii Pacific Health physicians, nurses, medical assistants and patient service representatives run the center, offering the same quality care as in any HPH clinic. What makes it truly unique are the students in Waipahu’s Academy of Health & Sciences who are shadowing these professionals, receiving real-life experience in everything from administrative to clinical positions. This hands-on learning complements the education they receive in the classroom, giving them a big head start in their health care career.

The center, one of the first of its kind in the nation, opened in April 2024. It was the result of an expansive partnership among HPH, Waipahu High, the state Department of Education, the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine and Hawaii 3Rs. Renovating the 1,870-square-foot space took just about a year. Today, the center has the look and feel of a modern clinic, complete with four exam rooms, a treatment room and a bright, spacious lobby.

Rochelle Bartolome-Steffens (far right), RN, Waipahu High Academic Health Center supervisor, with Waipahu High Academy of Health & Science students at the center’s blessing on April 10, 2024.

Real-Life Experience

Waipahu junior Leila Manibog was among the first to get a shadowing opportunity. She has been interested in medicine for as long as she can remember. Both her parents and several relatives are in health care. When she was younger, she’d follow her mom on bring-your-kids-to-work days and see her interacting with patients and caring for them. Leila’s goal, inspired by her pharmacist uncle, is to get into pharmacy school.

Shadowing the team at the Academic Health Center was a “really big eye opener” for Leila. She joined the group huddle, where the entire team goes over the day’s duties and priorities. One of the medical assistants showed her how to do quality checks. She also got to see three patients with the physician.

“Seeing how the clinic works in real life and spending time with the patients, it was really motivating,” Leila said.

It’s students like Leila who give a sense of fulfillment to Dr. Liana Kobayashi, the Academic Health Center’s full-time family medicine physician. Her journey to becoming a doctor has taken her from growing up on the Windward side to studying and working in Arizona and Ohio. But she always wanted to come back to Hawaii. The center gives her an opportunity to care for patients while mentoring the next generation.

“When I was in pre-med, it was hard to get shadowing opportunities,” Dr. Kobayashi said. “Here at the clinic, it’s so easy because we’re right on campus and all of us are very open to teaching.”

Dr. Liana Kobayashi (second from right) in the center’s morning meeting with the team and students.

A Focus on Students

The Academic Health Center was built with students in mind, and that’s evident everywhere you look. The lobby check-in area has extra space so students can sit next to HPH patient service representatives and learn. The lab and patient rooms were also designed with ample room for students to observe and ask questions. Even the clinic’s walls are decorated with artwork created by Waipahu students.

Furthermore, the clinic physicians set aside time in their schedules to connect with students and explain the decisions they make when seeing patients. And as more of the 500 students in Waipahu’s Academy of Health & Sciences experience the clinic in the coming years, the goal is to tailor it to provide even more experiences that students can benefit from.

“This clinic is a dynamic process, and we’re only getting started,” said Dr. Sandra Noon, Hawaii Pacific Health Medical Group (HPHMG) chief of primary care, who was one of the first physicians to see patients in the center. “As we grow, we want the students to inform us of what they want to learn because this is their clinic.”

Preparing the Next Generation

Waipahu junior Aubrey Baptista, who dreams of becoming a surgeon, is thankful she got to be involved behind the scenes of an actual doctor’s office while still in school.

“I’m so lucky to have this opportunity,” she said. “I feel like I’m taking the initiative to work toward my future, even before going to college.”

As she prepares for her senior year at Waipahu High, Aubrey is looking forward to having more hands-on opportunities at the clinic before she heads off to college. She hasn’t decided where yet, possibly the West Coast. But wherever she goes, one thing’s for sure: she wants to eventually come back home.

Her classmate Leila, born and raised in Waipahu, feels the same way. She doesn’t know where her aspirations of becoming a pharmacist will take her, but she wants to return to Hawaii because she wants to “give back to the community that raised us.”

Dr. Leslie Chun, HPHMG CEO, described the clinic as an investment worth making for the state’s future.

“It is a huge step forward for health care in Hawaii. This clinic will be an invaluable resource in preparing the next generation of homegrown health care providers,” Dr. Chun said.

Community Partnerships

Seeing the clinic up and running was a full-circle moment for Keith Hayashi. Before becoming DOE superintendent, he was the principal of Waipahu High. It was his partnership with HPH that created the first medical assistant training program for high school students in Hawaii, the trailblazing program that created the path for the Academic Health Center.

Seeing these partnerships come to fruition makes this “the most exciting time in public education,” Keith said. “When these students are successful, that success permeates to their family and community.”

Bold initiatives like the Academic Health Center wouldn’t be possible without community supporters, including The Healy Foundation. The organization that advocates for youth empowerment is committed to supporting the Academic Health Center and HPH workforce development programs for teens for the next few years.

“We are honored to support the Pali Momi Foundation and the Academic Health Center,” said Usha Kilpatrick, The Healy Foundation’s Hawaii program director. “The clinic is providing critical, meaningful career pathway opportunities for our youth, while simultaneously helping to strengthen our health care community. We value the creative and community-based approach that they have undertaken.”