Living life to the fullest has always been the foundation of our family’s life. Our family immigrated to United States seventeen years ago, full of hope and ambitions. Sadly, a couple years after our family’s settlement, my father became severely ill and was hospitalized for almost a year. he became weak physically but his mentality grew stronger in reassuring his eight children of his dream to see us succeed. Unfortunately, his conditioned had reached its end and he passed away shortly after we celebrated his third birthday in the US.
During my visitation to the hospital, I was grateful to see all the staffs that helped us went through the struggles and were their attending to our needs. Eversince then, my mother instilled in me the importance of health and caring for others how people cared for our family. …show more content…
Beginning of high school, I volunteered at Lutheran Hospital and VA hospital in Des Moines. Four years of volunteering, my tasks were socializing with patients to ease their stress and enhance recovery, assisting patients with their basic activities of daily living, and transporting patients to facilities.
Furthermore, I mentored personally and academically to elementary students through the Big Brother/Big Sisters Program.
From these experiences, I’ve gained interpersonal skills, communication skills, flexibility/adaptability skills, and most importantly, I’ve gained interests in being a part of the health professions upon entering University of Iowa.
Despite of my extensive volunteering, my determination to achieve academically led me to graduate as top 3% of my high school class.
During college years, I took on the leadership role as President of University of Iowa Vietnamese Student