Six aspiring physicians from University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine post-baccalaureate program are officially due to become medical students this summer.

The six are graduates of the Imi Hooala program within the school’s Department of Native Hawaiian Health. The program seeks out promising college graduates from underserved communities and offers them a year of intensive preparation for medical school. 

This year’s program includes students from Kaunakakai on Molokai; Kahului on Maui; Honolulu, Mililani, Ewa Beach on Oahu, and Rota in the Northern Mariana Islands.  

The school said Friday the students will join 60 other incoming medical school students at a ceremony on July 22. The 66 total students make up the medical school’s largest single class.