Elisabeth Young, graduating from UH John A. Burns School of Medicine in 2019, knows she wants to practice on the island where she grew up, and experienced an anonymous act of kindness
A University of Hawaii medical student from Kauai has earned awards for her scholarship and leadership from two major medical organizations.
Elisabeth Young of Lihue, a senior at the UH JABSOM, is the winner of the 2017-2018 Excellence in Public Health Award from the United States Public Health Service. The award recognizes medical students who are leaders in public health issues in their communities, and who increase awareness of the U.S. Public Health Service’s mission to protect, promote and advance the health and safety of the nation.
Young also has been selected by the American Medical Association Foundation to attend the first AMA Foundation Leadership Development Institute. The AMA Foundation will finance her travel to attend the Institute in Chicago, Sept. 6 to 8.
Public health, including incorporating social change to improve health, has been a passion of Young’s since she began to observe patients in medical settings through her time at JABSOM.
“Once these patients would leave the clinic or hospital, they would return to the same conditions that made them sick. That was playing in my mind all the time,” said Young. “As doctors we have the privilege of being let into patient’s lives. For me, this means recognizing the support people need to stay healthy. For example, right now one in 6 children in Hawaii struggle with hunger. This is something we can and should fix.”
Young was so dedicated to promoting public health that she took a one-year leave of absence from JABSOM to attend Harvard University, where she earned a master’s in public health degree from the T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Young, a 2009 graduate of Kauai High School, and the University of Puget Sound (B.S., biochemistry), found Harvard impressive “and a little intimidating.” But she thrived there, conducting research at Boston Children’s Hospital, spearheading a partnership between Harvard and Sportsman’s Tennis and Enrichment Center, which empowers elementary school aged students from underprivileged communities to rise as leaders.
Her public health education taught her the importance of implementing community-based health improvement projects, and to strictly evaluate their effectiveness.
“We should bring the same rigor to studying our public health programs as we do to scientific research,” she said, “We should fund programs that work”
Young is a member of the MD Class of 2019 at JABSOM, which graduates next May. She was inducted this year into the Gold Humanism Honor Society at the school.
She expects that her post-graduate medical training will be in the field of Pediatrics. Her ultimate goal is to return home to support the island she says has given her so much.
She recalls growing up when the stove in her house stopped working.
“We weren’t able to buy another one so we spent a few weeks cooking outside,” Young recalled. “Then one morning someone had left us a brand-new stove, as an anonymous gift. That is Kauai to me — people really care about each other and I hope I can give back as generously as my community raised me.”
