A New Star Scholar, James Lee's Essay

$19.38. A number I will never forget. For four years, this was the total amount I could allot for groceries each week. My hunger forcefully pushes me through the familiar aisles of the grocery store to buy eggs, milk, pasta, and the tomato sauce. I pay the cashier with the $19.38 ready in hand, and quickly leave the store.

After entering my apartment, I satisfy my craving with two boiled eggs, and settle in bed to get a few hours of sleep. However, my cell phone vibrates. It is my mother, and as usual, she attempts to convince me to pursue a dependable career path in singing or a corporate job in South Korea.

“Becoming a doctor is too difficult with your undocumented status,” she reminds me, “you won’t starve if you start working in Korea.”

“I can work nightshifts to support our family and pay back the rent and tuition loans I received from my friends, while still pursuing my interests,” I firmly reply. I apologize to my mother for my selfishness to pursue medicine, and say goodnight. I rest my eyes again, only to be lost in a train of thought.

 

As a freshman in college, I was open to all routes that might have been able to support my family. I explored a variety of fields, including music, marketing, and management through courses and student organizations. Three aspects from my journey filled my hungry stomach with delight: expanding on and applying my knowledge of physiology and neuroscience, teaching students, and providing service to others in need. At first, I worried that these seemingly unrelated passions might still be an indication of my uncertainty for the future. However, volunteering at Riverside Community Hospital demonstrated that a physician incorporates all three facets to take responsibility for the patients’ health.

Although Riverside Community Hospital was 100 miles away, the hours spent on the bus and train felt like fleeting moments as the excitement to assist patients and healthcare providers consumed my mind. Every minute as an intern provided me with new insights about the hospital setting. The doctors made personal connections with patients and ensured their comfort. When discussing the causes and the treatments for the illnesses, the doctors taught and simplified the complex scientific concepts for the patients and their families with a nonscientific background.

 

Above all else, witnessing endless patients endure immense physical and emotional pain had the most profound effect on me. I vividly recall a patient in the ICU who was not able to swallow a small spoonful of applesauce that I fed her. I realized that my hunger for food is insignificant compared to the hunger experienced by a patient who is physically unable to eat food, or is inflicted with other injuries and illnesses. I made a promise to myself that I will one day have the knowledge and the ability to relieve this incomparable pain. My time as an intern was limited because of the cost of travel, but my passions drove me to preserve these humbling experiences through volunteering, research, and teaching.

 

When teaching disadvantaged elementary school students, the students emanated the same kind of fulfillment from learning as hospital patients who regained their health. I experienced the rewarding feeling of translating advanced scientific concepts from college courses and knowledge from my research into fun and interactive material for students to enjoy. Mentoring one student in particular, George, was the most memorable. I opened his eyes to biology by sharing with him my research project at Salk Institute. This ten year old was so eager to learn about the different lobes of the brain that he even disregarded the bell for recess. Volunteering gave me the inspiration to utilize my love for research and education in human biology to spread my knowledge through teaching and to heal patients. The three activities gave me a small taste of the rewards of being a physician, and this joy quickly overwhelmed my priority to search a path to escape my financial struggles.

 

 

I am aware of other motivated students with financial hardships. My goal is to develop a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing financial support to underprivileged students pursuing in medicine and research in medical science. This organization will expand the scale of providing healthcare and education by eliminating the students’ financial insecurities to optimize the students’ performance in academia and further motivate them to achieve their medical aspirations. I will be in the front lines of clinical care to work alongside these future health care providers and scientists to provide services in underserved locations and to mentor disadvantaged students. The possibility that an individual’s immense potential to serve in healthcare needs, or to contribute key discoveries in medicine, is repressed by their financial circumstances is a very frightening idea…

Suddenly, my stomach growls again to remind me of my empty stomach. However, reflecting back on my past experiences, and the possibility of continuing them in the future as a physician, is miraculously making me feel very full.

 

Now, it is my turn to fill the needs of people hungry for their health recovery and for education in medical science.

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뜻 있는 분들의 조그만 손길이 모여, 미국의 한인사회를 더욱 풍요롭게하고 있다고 생각합니다. 

저희 Chicago Title의 Anna Ma 와 Young Lee, Jonathan Kim, Sam Kim, John Ma 일동이 보내는 도움의 정성이 미래의 한인 엘리트를 육성하는데 큰 역할을 할 수 있기를 기원합니다

 

 

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