Scholarship Spotlight Spring 2009 - Ohlone College Foundation
Myo Wong
- Steelcase/One Work Place & Ohlone College Foundation Scholarship and
ASOC Scholarship
“Being able to make a positive impact on the lives of others throughout my school and community services has further given me inspiration and motivation to expand my contributing role in society by being a medical doctor and conducting scientific research in the future.”
I will never forget my first experience in the emergency room as a young kid. I cried as I was being hooked up to number of IV tubes while my parents gazed at me with eyes full of worry. I discovered this incident was due to Malaria and Dengue. Both were common diseases in Taungee, the small, poverty-stricken Burmese town that I grew up in. Today, I reflect on my survival due to the combined effort of a team of physicians while the other underprivileged children who were in my situation were unable to survive. Although I saw first-hand how much diseases can impact the lives of the poor in a third-world country, I also realized how important a physician’s role can be in people’s lives.
This experience has influenced me, and as a result, I have aspired to be a direct source of help by becoming a physician. I believe that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to life as I have had. Aside from curing patients directly as a physician, I plan on further contributing to society by being involved in biomedical research to improve the lives of people on a large scale.
With these goals in mind, I have strived diligently to excel in school in order to learn as much possible and to prepare myself for my future enrollment into a medical school. Since graduating from John F. Kennedy High School in 2007 as a Valedictorian, I have maintained a 4.00 GPA throughout my two years at Ohlone College while being actively involved in my school and community.
As a Historian/Marketing Director of LIFE (Liberated Individuals For the Environment) Club, I helped promote environmental awareness and demonstrated practical sustainability through Earth Week and Recycling Days. Due to our strong efforts to actively make our community green, LIFE obtained its second Club of the Year award in Spring 2008. Currently as a secretary of AMSA Health Care Coalition, I have helped manage medically -related presentations along with our trip to a pre-med conference in Sacramento in order to provide students with relevant information and resources necessary for them to reach their health care related goals. Throughout these experiences, I have improved my leadership and communication skills, but most importantly I have discovered fulfillment in contributing to my community.
My past involvements with my community have further inspired me to keep contributing. Since then, my most rewarding experience comes in the form of being a lead mentor in Project New Beginning. In this program, we mentor disadvantaged children to provide them with motivation and direction. As we have learned from our own experiences of setting goals and building dreams, we teach these kids to develop similar traits by assigning them weekly projects that help them develop similar goal setting practices. Witnessing the active participation and development of these kids each week makes this project both satisfying and rewarding for me.
Being able to make a positive impact on the lives of others throughout my school and community services has further given me inspiration and motivation to expand my contributing role in society by being a medical doctor and conducting scientific research in the future. Receiving this scholarship greatly assists me in fulfilling my aspirations by allowing me to focus on my rigorous courses and continue my community involvement with less financial burden.
Emergency