UH receives $1M fellowship
The gift will help support students at the medical school through four years
A $1 million fellowship has been created at the University of Hawaii medical school for students who plan to intern and practice medicine in Hawaii.
The Barry and Virginia Weinman Fellowship is merit-based and will help pay for tuition and fees during four continuous years of study at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, and covers about $90,000 of the student's costs.
The program is already helping to retain three Hawaii students who will receive the fellowship, the UH Foundation said in a news release.
Kristine Layugan, a Hawaii Pacific University and Moanalua High School graduate, plans to work as a doctor serving local and immigrant communities.
Bradlee Sako is a UH-Manoa and Leilehua High School graduate who wants to become a primary care physician in the Waipahu area. He is a Leilehua High School graduate.
Joshua Hvidding, a UH-Manoa, University of New South Wales and Iolani School graduate, plans on practicing in Waianae, where he attended intermediate school.
There are more than 30 student scholarships at the UH medical school, and in the 2005-06 school year they saved students nearly $250,000 in tuition, fees, books, travel and other expenses.
"We are very pleased to make this gift, which will help strengthen the medical profession in Hawaii. There is an ongoing shortage of doctors in Hawaii, and our fellowship is a tool to help address this issue by recruiting and retaining future physicians," said Virginia Weinman in the news release.
UH Foundation Chairwoman Faye Kurren said, "Barry and Virginia exemplify giving from the heart and giving for Hawaii. They have been inspirations, from funding scholarships to providing valuable introductions to philanthropic individuals to providing investment advice for the University of Hawaii's endowments."
Barry Weinman has served on the Board of Trustees of the University of Hawaii 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. 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 Barry and Virginia Weinman Fellowship is the couple's latest donation in support of the University of Hawaii. 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 at the College of Business Administration.