Momi Elizabeth Ka`anoi MSIV, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai`i

Alean Iwalani Cook MSIV, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai`i

Momi Ka`anoi, a 1991 biology graduate of the University of Portland, shares her knowledge and time by teaching. At Portland she worked as a teaching assistant in the biology department. At the Hawai`i Youth Correctional Facility she taught health and sex education. And at the University of Hawai`i School of Medicine, from which she plans to graduate with her MD in May 1997, she has taught in the Na Pua No`eau Program for Hawaiian Youth. Her community services includes presentations to Native Hawaiian families on health and nutrition through the Queen Liliu`okalani Children's Center, discussions and advice on medical school as a Kulia member, and as a volunteer at St. Francis Hospice. Through Ke Ola O Hawai`i/Kellogg she has been active promoting medical school involvement in Big Island communities and working in the teen pregnancy secured grant with the Nanakuli Hapai School. On campus she has served as a simulated patient in the University of Hawai`i Office of Medical Education and as a student participant in the Imi Ho`ola Curriculum Development Committee. She is a member of the Hawai`i Medical Association and Family Medicine Interest Group and holds the Native Hawaiian Health Profession's Scholarship Award.

Alean Cook, a four-year recipient of the Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship and Grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a 1993 graduate of the University of Hawai`i at Manoa, holding a degree in biology with a chemistry minor. Currently the secretary of the class of 1997, she is also a student member of the Clerkship Advisory Committee and served as a student panel member for the LCME Accreditation site visit. Alean has worked as a student experimental and laboratory specialist at the Hawai`i Evolutionary Biology Program, a pre-graduate research assistant in the University of Hawai`i Department of Social Work on an HIV/AIDS project, a medical student representative with Ke Ola O Hawai`i - Waianae Teen Pregnancy program, and a health and science instructor at the Na Pua No`eau Super Science and Health Fair for Native Hawaiian students. She is currently a volunteer respite provider and activities coordinator assistant for HUGS (Help, Unity, and Group Support), an organization for terminally ill children and their families. Alean is a member of the American Association of Family Physicians, Hawai`i Medical Association and serves on the HMA's Native Hawaiian Health Committee.

Alean and Momi were nominated by Dr. Gwen Naguwa, who is currently handling minority affairs for the University of Hawai`i School of Medicine. Calling them "extraordinary students," Dr. Naguwa says they have both done very well clinically. Of these students, Dr. Naguwa said, "they are both very active in the community and are very committed to going back to serve the underrepresented populations that they came from."

Journal for Minority Medical Students/Fall 1996