Gift Will Help Keep the Best and Brightest in Hawaiʻi
(Honolulu, Hawaiʻi) - The University of Hawaiʻi Foundation (UHF) is pleased to announce that Barry and Virginia Weinman have created a $1 million fellowship program for students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). The Barry and Virginia Weinman Fellowship will assist University of Hawaiʻi medical students who plan to intern and practice in Hawaiʻi. The Weinman Fellowships are for tuition and fees during four continuous years of study and covers about $90,000 of the student’s costs.
"We are very pleased to make this gift, which will help strengthen the medical profession in Hawaiʻi. There is an ongoing shortage of doctors in Hawaiʻi and our Fellowship is a tool to help address this issue by recruiting and retaining future physicians," said Virginia Weinman.
Three JABSOM students have qualified for the 2006-07 school year Fellowships. All three were raised in Hawaiʻi. Kristine Layugan graduated from Hawaiʻi Pacific University and intends to become a primary care physician and provide services to local and immigrant communities. Bradlee Sako is a UH Mānoa 2005 graduate who has spent the last year as a part-time teacher at his high school. Bradlee, a Regent Scholar, wants to become a primary care physician in the Waipahu area. Joshua Hvidding is a biology graduate from UH Mānoa and has a Masters in Public Health from the University of New South Wales. He plans on practicing in Waianae.
UHF Chair Faye Kurren said, "Barry and Virginia exemplify giving from the heart and giving for Hawaiʻi. They have been inspirations, from funding scholarships to providing valuable introductions to philanthropic individuals to providing investment advice for the University of Hawaiʻi’s endowments. The Weinmans have an extraordinary commitment to enhancing the University of Hawaiʻi and our State."
Barry Weinman said, "We created these Fellowships because of our concerns that with rising tuition and other costs, medical students are facing a huge burden of debt upon graduation. They then encounter sky rocketing malpractice insurance premiums in many needed specialties. This encourages them to leave Hawaiʻi or practice in fields based on economic realities, rather than the community’s needs. We encourage the legislature to address malpractice tort reform, and we encourage UH alumni and the local community to contribute to student scholarships."
The Barry and Virginia Weinman Fellowship is the couple’s latest donation in support of the University of Hawaiʻi. In 2000 they gave $1.35 million to establish the Barry and Virginia Weinman Chair of Entrepreneurship and initiate the Pacific Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business (PACE) at the College of Business Administration.
Barry Weinman has served on the Board of Trustees of the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation since 2002. He is co-founder of Allegis Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital fund and Chairman of DragonBridge Capital, a Honolulu and Beijing Merchant Bank.
Virginia Weinman is a graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and also has a Masters in Marriage, Family & Child Counseling. She currently serves on several local charitable boards and is the President of the Weinman Foundation. She was founder and President of Allusions.com, a multimedia development company and had served in the Reagan Administration.
# # #
The University of Hawaiʻi Foundation, a nonprofit organization, raises private funds to support the University of Hawaiʻi System. The mission of the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation is to unite donors' passions with the University of Hawaiʻi’s aspirations by raising philanthropic support and managing private investments to benefit UH, the people of Hawaiʻi and our future generations www.uhfoundation.org.
