BAO (ALINA) NGUYEN

BAO (ALINA) NGUYEN
VIETNAMESE DEPARTMENT COORDINATOR 2013 – 2014, INTERNAL DIRECTOR 2014-2015, PRESIDENT* 2015-2016

*2014-2015 and 2015-2016 were the only years during which VHIO had a president. 

Hi everyone!

My name Bao and I’m a first-year medical student at UCSD. I graduated from Berkeley in 2016 with a major in Integrative Biology.

I joined VHIO in my freshman year and stayed with the organization for the entire four years of college. Being in VHIO was one of the main highlights of my undergraduate career and it played a big role in my decision to pursue medicine. As an immigrant, my personal struggles with language and cultural barriers piqued my interest in working with communities similar to the one I grew up in. When I stumbled upon the VHIO table at Calapalooza in the fall of freshman year, I knew right away that becoming a medical interpreter was exactly what I was looking for. I was grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life, whether it was helping the seniors at Oakland Senior Center fill out their forms or completing translation requests. Through VHIO, I gained memorable patient interactions, learned valuable insights about healthcare, and formed lifelong friendships.

Piece of advice: don’t be afraid to reach out to your VHIO family (including alumni!) for support because this is an awesome community to be a part of! I honestly would not have gotten to where I am right now without the help of my VHIO friends and mentors J Lastly, feel free to reach out to me via email/fb message if you are considering/interested in medicine, even if we haven’t met! I might not be able to answer right away [,] but I’ll do my best to help in any way I can—we need more culturally competent, multilingual, and passionate healthcare professionals!

Have a wonderful school year!

❤ Bao

September 2017

This spotlight was first prepared in honor of our ten year anniversary.