When I was younger, I spent years going in and out of hospitals because of recurring lung problems. Those visits became even more difficult after my family moved to the United States. My parents were still learning English, and the language and financial barriers that came with navigating a new healthcare system made every hospital visit more stressful. I remember watching nurses ask questions my parents struggled to answer and wishing someone could help them communicate. At the time, I couldn’t understand why getting medical care had to be so difficult. I only knew that families shouldn’t have to worry about being understood while trying to help their child. That feeling stayed with me long after I recovered. As I grew older, I realized those experiences had shaped the kind of future I wanted. Pursuing medicine felt like the best way to help families facing the same challenges mine once did. Over the past few years, I’ve spent more than 500 hours volunteering, primarily in hospitals, where I’ve had the chance to see healthcare from the other side. I quickly realized that many of the problems I remembered as a child have improved. Translation services are easier to access, healthcare workers have better tools to communicate with patients, and more families can receive financial assistance than when I was younger. Watching those changes firsthand gave me hope because they showed that healthcare can continue to improve. Volunteering also showed me that many patients still struggle to understand their care. Some hesitate to ask questions because they aren’t sure what medical terms mean, while others leave appointments still confused about what comes next. Seeing those interactions made me pay closer attention to the way healthcare workers communicate with patients. A few extra minutes spent answering questions or explaining instructions can make a stressful situation much easier for a family to navigate. As a physician, I want to build on the progress that’s already been made. I hope to advocate for stronger language access, clearer communication between providers and patients, and especially healthcare policies that better support underserved communities. Even small improvements can change what a patient experiences when they are at their most vulnerable. When I think back to the child sitting in those hospital rooms, I remember helplessly wishing someone could make things a little easier for my family. That memory has stayed with me for years, and I hope to spend my career making hospital care easier to navigate for families facing the same challenges mine once did. Receiving the Maxwell Tuan Nguyen Memorial Scholarship would bring me one step closer to that goal. As I begin my undergraduate education and prepare for medical school, this support would allow me to focus more of my time on learning at the University of Washington, and gaining the experiences that will shape me into the physician I hope to become. More importantly, it would be an investment in the work I plan to carry forward throughout my career. I want to help create a healthcare system where families don’t have to struggle to be understood, and where every patient can receive care with confidence, regardless of the language they speak or the circumstances they come from.

As an ethnic Kazakh immigrant, I’ve spent much of my life explaining where I come from. Kazakhstan is a Central Asian country that many people have never heard of, and growing up, I often found myself answering questions about my culture and background again and again to uncaring strangers. At first, I saw those moments as evidence that I was different, even in a country of variety. Years later, when I began tutoring students and volunteering in hospitals, I found myself sitting across from young people experiencing many of the same doubts and frustrations that I once had. One student I worked with through free online SAT tutoring was a Hispanic girl from Texas who struggled with confidence in school. She hesitated to ask questions and often doubted herself before even attempting a problem. It was strange to see another person as unsure of whether she belonged as I had been, but the connection helped me aid her in improving herself. As we continued working together, I watched her become more comfortable speaking up and learning the minute details to ace the SAT. Helping her and seeing her growth reminded me of why I was drawn to service in the first place. I pride myself in my volunteer work. Through more than 500 hours of community service, most of it spent in a hospital, I have met people during some of the most stressful moments of their lives. Patients and families arrive in different conditions, but everyone is at least a little overwhelmed. My role may be simple, whether it is providing directions or assisting staff, but I have learned that small actions can have a meaningful impact. I’ve seen the same lesson in my time as group leader at the Providence summer camps for children with disabilities, as surgery intern at Providence Hospital Everett manning the surgery floor, and as nurse assistant in the Family Maternity Center at Evergreen Health Hospital. These experiences are why I see myself as a positive force in society. I don’t think positive change comes from a single accomplishment or leadership position, but from consistently choosing to help people when given the opportunity. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, my goal is the same: to leave people better off than I found them. Our social norms have gotten better at understanding the challenges people face because of factors outside their control, but there is much room to improve. I’ve personally seen how access to healthcare can influence a child’s future and how difficult it can be for some families to receive the care they need. This is not a problem hard work can solve. I needed to think beyond helping individual people and consider how our society can better serve the communities that depend on the system. That realization led me toward medicine. My long-term goal is to become a physician and improve healthcare accessibility for children and families who face financial, cultural, and language barriers. I want to help create a healthcare system where quality care is determined by need rather than income and where fewer children suffer because help was out of reach. This scholarship would support that goal by helping me pursue higher education at the University of Washington while continuing my commitment to service. As an immigrant, I spent years trying to find where I belonged in a country that didn’t know I came from. Today, I have the opportunity to help others facing challenges of their own. Whether through tutoring, volunteering, or my future career in medicine, I hope to continue helping people feel supported.

Growing up, I understood that language would remain a barrier in my life. Moving countries at an early age had kept me from growing up with my culture yet denied me the language basis my peers had. This barrier left me distant from relatives in Kazakhstan and my new classmates in America. With my parents still learning English, I often had to navigate school and social expectations alone. Things became critical once medical emergencies were added to the mix. As a child, I experienced repeated hospital visits due to a condition that closed my throat, where I helplessly watched my parents struggle to communicate with burnt-out healthcare providers. I remember how uncertain those moments felt, wishing for someone to make sure my parents’ words were heard. That experience stayed with me and shaped my early interest in medicine, not only to treat patients, but to ensure they are understood. I plan to pursue a career in medicine with the long-term goal of becoming a surgeon who works to make healthcare more equitable and accessible. While I do have an academic interest in biology and human physiology, my motivation to pursue this career path comes from something more personal. I have personally seen how barriers in communication and access can shape a patient’s experience, and I want to use my education to reduce those barriers in meaningful ways. Years after my experience, as a volunteer at Evergreen Health Hospital, I encountered a moment that reflected that same barrier from the other side. An elderly couple entered the hospital speaking Russian, struggling to communicate their concerns as the man was in visible pain. When I spoke to them in our shared language, their relief was immediate. I guided them through the hospital and helped translate for medical staff, staying nearby to support them. They later shared that they had avoided seeking care because they feared not being understood. That moment was what clued me into the fact that society’s trouble with access to healthcare is not only about nearby availability, but also the quality and inclusiveness of care to be able to help every patient. My clinical experiences continued to shape this perspective. While volunteering at Evergreen Health in the Family Maternity Center, I helped patients and new parents navigate an unfamiliar environment during stressful situations by acting with empathy and compassion. I learned to recognize when someone felt overwhelmed and to adjust how I communicated by slowing down and rephrasing information to make sure they understood instead of reciting the bare minimum of what I was taught to say. As a surgery waiting intern at Providence Hospital in Everett, I assisted nurses as they handled patient care before and after surgery, observing how their patience and reassurance played as much of a role in effective care as their technical skills. All of these instances have taught me that the best kind of healthcare provider is the one that personalizes treatment and care to the individual. I carried this new understanding beyond the hospital. As an online tutor, I worked with a Texan highschooler who wanted to raise her SAT English score by over a hundred points. She had trouble understanding the advanced language in the prompts, so I guided her through vocabulary practice and taught her methods to simplify the questions. After receiving her latest SAT score, she thanked me for guiding her with patience and a positive attitude because it gave her the confidence to keep going. My personalization of the standard learning curriculum let me focus on the root of the problem so that we could fix it together, which got considerable results. Ms. Ida Mae Foster Whittaker’s life reflects the values I hope to carry forward. Despite limited formal education, she continued learning while raising her family and remained deeply involved in her community. Her commitment to education and advocacy shows that change is built through persistence and service. I am inspired by how she used education to uplift others, and I hope to honor her legacy by using my own education to improve access to healthcare and strengthen trust between patients and providers. Ultimately, my goal is to help create a healthcare system where every patient is understood and supported regardless of background or circumstance. Having been admitted to the University of Washington Seattle, I plan to continue building on my academic foundation in the sciences while staying engaged in clinical and community-based work. Through these experiences, I will further develop the skills needed to serve diverse populations and address disparities in healthcare. This scholarship would support my ability to continue that path and carry forward the values reflected in Ms. Ida Mae’s legacy.