Student Spotlight: Ikaika Molina

Earlier this year, we proudly announced our first ever Community Impact Scholarship recipients: six individuals who are already creating positive change in their communities and are looking to maximize their impact by learning Functional Medicine Health Coaching at FMCA. Through our partnership with the Institute for Functional Medicine and a generous grant from the VoLo Foundation, these six amazing professionals will receive full tuition scholarships to our September 2024 Class.

We’re introducing each of our Community Impact Scholarship recipients and sharing their inspiring visions in this series of Student Spotlights. We’ve already introduced Shavonne, and this week, we get to know Ikaika, a chef whose belief in food-as-medicine led him to health coaching.

While working as a chef, Ikaika had a realization that his approach was missing a key component: nutrition. Specifically, he was interested in food as medicine for childhood epilepsy patients. He knocked on the door of his local children’s hospital, which led to volunteering opportunities, professional connections, mentorship, and eventually, new certifications and trainings. One day, he met a caregiver who didn’t know how to prepare the food plan that their patient had been prescribed, and he knew he had found his niche as a chef health coach.

“I was getting calls from other healthcare providers, saying, ‘Maybe you could teach [my patient] how to cook these meals, or improve their diet?’ And I was like, ‘Yes! Everything, bring it all to me, that’s just another opportunity to learn and grow!'”

Ikaika Molina, incoming FMCA student

With his training as a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, Ikaika wants to partner with mission-driven organizations to empower his community to achieve their wellness goals. Whether through his work with Nā Puʻuwai, the Native Hawaiian Health Care System, or his role on Hawaii’s Alzheimer’s and dementia committees, Ikaika aims to integrate food and cooking instruction into both preventive and therapeutic practices. He believes that all caregivers and patients deserve support as they manage their conditions and enhance their overall wellness. As a health coach, he will be well-equipped to provide that skillful support.

Growth and learning have been key features of Ikaika’s professional journey up to now, and we know those experiences will help him thrive at FMCA. His passion for and commitment to his work and his community is evident, and it is our privilege to welcome him to FMCA’s September 2024 Class as a Community Impact Scholarship recipient. Check out his conversation with Dr. Sandi below.

Watch the Interview

Watch Ikaika’s Student Spotlight interview with Dr. Sandi here.

About the VoLo Foundation

VoLo Foundation is a private nonprofit organization with a mission “to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health” and a vision for a “planet where all beings are ensured access to a sustainable and clean environment, health services, and education.”

Transcript

Ikaika: First of all, thank you for the opportunity to just be in the presence of you. This is another step, moving forward in my journey of becoming a health coach.

So, I think I’ll just take you back a few years, instead of taking, you know, much deeper. I had a relationship, an interest, a curiosity about a specific nutrition that helped with epilepsy for children. I was a chef, a trained chef, and I had no aspirations of any sort of health coaching. But while I was working, that was something that I was really interested in as a chef. I was like, I should know all aspects of nutrition, of how food affects people.

So I knocked on the doors at a children’s hospital to get more information. And I struck a chord with the neurologist and the dietitian. I started doing volunteer outreach programs with them in any way I could. They obviously started seeing my interest, and they started mentoring me, giving me information about that. And it snowballed into conferences, and more education.

That led to–there happened to be a situation where a patient had a caregiver who did not know how to cook that specific nutrition, and then I was approached about it, to help them. That is how this became the possibility of being a business.

I just continue educating myself. I’m such a student of this, and I want to continue learning because the information is rapidly moving. And it is exciting for someone who deals with food primarily—I can just see the interaction of how that can really improve somebody’s health. It’s very individualized, which I really love.

So that’s kind of how it started. I ended up offered a position to be a chef health coach, partnering with the healthcare provider to work with these obesity and diabetes programs. And that is where I got the bulk of this functional medicine background, because of the healthcare providers. I would just like to say the one thing that has really separated me from a lot of people is that they had enough confidence in me and wanted to mentor me more, because I was in clinic with patients, to get a better understanding of the complexities of these individual patients.

And so that’s where I’m at now. I’m continuing to expand in many different areas, but it is always tracking forward in growth of understanding how food can be medicine.

Dr. Sandi: Now, that’s just beautiful. Can you say more about your community, and who you serve, who you want to serve and the impact you would like to make for this community.

Ikaika: So currently, I work for an organization called Nā Puʻuwai, which is the Native Hawaiian Health Care System. That is where the bulk of my education has come from in this space. Because of that background, I was also a personal chef. And so randomly, I was getting calls from other healthcare providers like, “I happen to have a client or a patient, and maybe you could help out and teach them how to cook these meals, or improve things about their diet?” And so I was like, ‘Yes! Everything, bring it all to me, that’s just another opportunity to learn and grow!”

That is both on the island of Molokai and then on Oahu where I live. My community is extended out to my passions, where, I believe, this particular type of nutrition can be beneficial, obviously, with the epilepsy foundations and people in that space. And because this particular nutrition is broad—it can go in a lot of different ways. I am on the the state strategic plan for Hawaii’s Alzheimer’s and dementia committees, and I’m really excited about sharing a little bit of my knowledge and bringing the conversation around food in a way that maybe they’re just not…food should be a part of the conversation in that space.

When we’re talking about health coaching, it’s not primarily for the person suffering, it’s for the caregivers where I see this health coaching piece come in. Because of the stress involved with these unpaid caregivers and their community. So I just see there’s a lot of overlap and how I can, you know, help a lot of these communities.

Dr. Sandi: I see that you will be a tremendous help, and you are going to help thousands of people. Yes, you are so right about the caregivers, like, who cares for the caregivers? Well, now they will have somebody who is caring for them, and teaching them how to take care of their own health.

So, you have a big mission, and we are here to support you every step of the way, I can’t wait for you to start and in September and meet your fellow cohort members and start to train with us.

Ikaika: I’m excited. I’m very excited to—one of the things that I’ve kind of been introduced to in the space of functional medicine, seeing how everything kind of works. And even though I provide a very important piece to the overall, you know, wellness journey, I know that tapping into somebody’s behavior change is crucial. And, of course, over the years, I’ve tried to gain information, but there’s gonna be nothing like getting it from the professionals and understanding it in a way that I can translate it to clients or patients or, you know, anybody that’s out there.

Dr. Sandi: Yes. Well, we again, can’t wait to meet you. And we have our team standing by. They’ll answer any questions, walk you through how to get on our learning management system. That is all to come. So, expect to hear more from us as the time gets closer.

Ikaika: Fantastic.

Dr. Sandi: Thank you. Well, it was a pleasure to meet you. To be continued. And I have office hours when class starts, so you’ll have access to me as well.

Ikaika: Thank you so much, and thank you to the VoLo Foundation to allow me this opportunity. This is huge for me. Yeah. Thank you.