I am one of eleven million undocumented
immigrants living here in America I am
one of eight hundred thousand daca
recipients and I am one of one hundred
undocumented students in medical school
training to become a doctor though these
numbers are the facts of my life they
obscure the complexity of how I got here
and what the future holds for me now one
of the earliest memories I had after
moving to America was of a cramped but
cozy living room over five of a
one-bedroom apartment where the five of
us began a new chapter together we’re
aren’t we aren’t going back to Thailand
my parents told my brother sister and I
we’re staying here in America as Robin
Hood’s
that’s the Thai saying for becoming
undocumented for overstaying or tourist
visas which were set to expire within a
few months after an economic crash in
Southeast Asia my parents found
themselves rebuilding their lives once
again and though we didn’t truly
understand what being undocumented would
have meant we knew that this is what we
had to do as a family for a better
future so my parents Scott work at local
Thai restaurants right here in the Bay
Area and they would come home late and I
would wait up to say hi to them and as
they entered the apartment I would run
up to them and hug them put my arms
around their waists before they could
even take their aprons off and I would
remember this
the fish sauce and curry spices and let
me tell you you don’t forget the smell
of fish sauce and as I looked into their
eyes and see they’re tired expressions
after a hard day’s work I would ask them
what can I do to help focus on your job
they would say and my job as a young
child there is it was to do well in
school
and we all looked to education as the
key to success we all looked to
education as a way to our American Dream
and after witnessing everything that my
parents were willing to sacrifice for
the opportunities that they never had I
channeled their work ethic into years of
diligence I immersed myself in my
studies I eventually learned and
mastered the English language excelled
in AP classes and graduated as
highschool salutatorian all the while
working 30 hours a week thank you thank
you
although while working 30 hours a week
at our family’s Thai restaurant I apply
to five u C’s for college I was accepted
to all of them UC Davis in particular
offered me a Regent scholarship which
was the full tuition scholarship offered
to an exceptional few I was relieved all
of those days spent writing world
history papers in the back room and
running to the front when the restaurant
was busy were worth it I could go to
college and afford it because otherwise
I was ineligible for any financial aid
as
undocumented student three months before
the start of college I was called into
the financial aid office they wanted to
see proof of my citizenship and legal
immigration status when I told them that
I did not have a green card and I didn’t
have a social security number the
officer looked at me and said let us
know when your status changes and just
like that the scholarship offer was
withdrawn the formula for the American
Dream had failed me I listened to my
parents I did my job
I earned this scholarship opportunity
and yet I came to find the fear American
dream for me was the false promise and
it was the first time that I came face
to face with an institutional barrier
created by my immigration status that I
couldn’t face alone thankfully I have my
family and they helped support me
through the first year of college while
I bussed tables and hunted for private
scholarships oh by the way I ended up
here at UC Berkeley
because it would have cost the same
anyways and we all know it is the
weather school so but going up
I actually was isolated and afraid of
the constant threat of deportation if
anyone learned I was undocumented same
for my family I remember holding my
breath every time a police car drove by
or I heard a siren in the second year of
my college I met other undocumented
folks other undocumented immigrants for
the first time and it changed my life on
a bright sunny day on a rooftop deck
overlooking Lake Merritt my family and I
arrived to a scholarship ceremony and we
looked around and we saw other families
there and we leaned to each other and
whispered are all these other people
undocumented too and later on the
afternoon the reception would celebrate
young scholars with our families by our
side and I saw for the first time that
being undocumented could be filled with
so much joy so much support rather than
the shame and the stigma and the
positive energy that day was unlike
anything I had ever before associated
with being a documented that was in 2010
and that year was important because I
would continue to go on this journey of
redefining what it would mean to be an
undocumented immigrant I enrolled in
Professor Tyrone Hayes
since class actually here at Berkeley
intro to endocrinology and it was during
that class that students protested the
tuition hikes that were happening that
year by having a UC walk out day while I
was in solidarity I didn’t come to
America to miss class and so I went to
class but what professor Hayes did next
would stay with me forever instead of
lecturing he shared with us his story of
being one of the few African American
students an Ivy League institution he
shared with us the importance of carving
your own path when you are first so that
others could be there too he put up iron
signs words those who have the privilege
to act do know have the duty to act and
it was all a moment of clarity for me
for years I’ve been watching
undocumented youth speak up publicly
while people like my parents were
working day in and day out how could I
sit here in this lecture hall and do
nothing
no it was my duty to speak up about
being undocumented to influence the very
policies that affected my communities
and so I became deeply involved
immigrant rights activism I vote about
my immigration story I testified at the
State Capitol and in support of in-state
financial aid here in California and to
limit ice and police collaboration and I
learned through all of that that if we
come together as a community even as
undocumented immigrants
we could reclaim our agency and in 2012
two years later I graduated with honors
from Berkeley and molecular and cell
biology thank you now by this point I
knew that I wanted to become a doctor
from personal experiences of having very
little or no access to health care I
wanted to become a physician who would
change policies and influence the status
quo of how healthcare was delivered and
thereby impacting uninsured low-income
homeless immigrant communities the very
same I was a part of and have worked
with yet there were so many unanswered
questions is it even possible for me to
go to med school how would I do it and
at that point I always used to joke that
undocumented medical students were like
unicorns because we would ask around and
somebody would say that I had heard of
someone that had known of somebody that
went to med school but no one could
actually ever find the person and I just
thought they simply didn’t exist and
that was when I co-founded pre-health
dreamers an organization with a mission
of supporting and document immigrant
students in their health and science
careers with my colleagues Denise Rojas
and angel ku and what began as a quest
to find a unicorn became a community
around the nation that engaged in peer
advising in resource sharing and in
advocacy
we pictured to ourselves and asked what
if and document students could be
considered equally in their admissions
to graduate and professional schools
what if institutions would recognize
that our lived experiences leave us well
equipped to provide exceptional health
care and change the systems that have
kept us out what if we could recreate
that positive energy that I had felt on
that rooftop that day at that ceremony
and the more we believed it the more
schools we apply to the more hearts we
engage the more champions we found and
the more policies we changed and six
years later I am now one of 100 and
documented medical students around the
country
[Applause]
when I first gone to UCSF I made sure to
share my story far and wide because I
wanted every single undocumented student
to know that it was possible and that
they are not alone
and luckily along the way I was able to
have everybody that has helped me to
that point be with me I am one of eleven
million I am one of eight hundred
thousand I’m one of one hundred we’ve
been for the past year in a chapter of
crises everyday as an undocumented
policies and politics attempt to define
my world the 2016 election wondering
which executive order would rescind anka
whether or not Congress will or will not
do something these are all examples of
that reality but everybody here today
may not have been undocumented but we
are all a part of a community that has
faced injustice that have experienced
our rights being questioned and
experienced health inequities and so we
must remember that crises are also
opportunities we could give up turn the
other way or we could take no for an
answer and use our agency for change so
the question today is how are we all
going to engage in the policies and
politics that allow people like me to
become American thank you
you
immigrants living here in America I am
one of eight hundred thousand daca
recipients and I am one of one hundred
undocumented students in medical school
training to become a doctor though these
numbers are the facts of my life they
obscure the complexity of how I got here
and what the future holds for me now one
of the earliest memories I had after
moving to America was of a cramped but
cozy living room over five of a
one-bedroom apartment where the five of
us began a new chapter together we’re
aren’t we aren’t going back to Thailand
my parents told my brother sister and I
we’re staying here in America as Robin
Hood’s
that’s the Thai saying for becoming
undocumented for overstaying or tourist
visas which were set to expire within a
few months after an economic crash in
Southeast Asia my parents found
themselves rebuilding their lives once
again and though we didn’t truly
understand what being undocumented would
have meant we knew that this is what we
had to do as a family for a better
future so my parents Scott work at local
Thai restaurants right here in the Bay
Area and they would come home late and I
would wait up to say hi to them and as
they entered the apartment I would run
up to them and hug them put my arms
around their waists before they could
even take their aprons off and I would
remember this
the fish sauce and curry spices and let
me tell you you don’t forget the smell
of fish sauce and as I looked into their
eyes and see they’re tired expressions
after a hard day’s work I would ask them
what can I do to help focus on your job
they would say and my job as a young
child there is it was to do well in
school
and we all looked to education as the
key to success we all looked to
education as a way to our American Dream
and after witnessing everything that my
parents were willing to sacrifice for
the opportunities that they never had I
channeled their work ethic into years of
diligence I immersed myself in my
studies I eventually learned and
mastered the English language excelled
in AP classes and graduated as
highschool salutatorian all the while
working 30 hours a week thank you thank
you
although while working 30 hours a week
at our family’s Thai restaurant I apply
to five u C’s for college I was accepted
to all of them UC Davis in particular
offered me a Regent scholarship which
was the full tuition scholarship offered
to an exceptional few I was relieved all
of those days spent writing world
history papers in the back room and
running to the front when the restaurant
was busy were worth it I could go to
college and afford it because otherwise
I was ineligible for any financial aid
as
undocumented student three months before
the start of college I was called into
the financial aid office they wanted to
see proof of my citizenship and legal
immigration status when I told them that
I did not have a green card and I didn’t
have a social security number the
officer looked at me and said let us
know when your status changes and just
like that the scholarship offer was
withdrawn the formula for the American
Dream had failed me I listened to my
parents I did my job
I earned this scholarship opportunity
and yet I came to find the fear American
dream for me was the false promise and
it was the first time that I came face
to face with an institutional barrier
created by my immigration status that I
couldn’t face alone thankfully I have my
family and they helped support me
through the first year of college while
I bussed tables and hunted for private
scholarships oh by the way I ended up
here at UC Berkeley
because it would have cost the same
anyways and we all know it is the
weather school so but going up
I actually was isolated and afraid of
the constant threat of deportation if
anyone learned I was undocumented same
for my family I remember holding my
breath every time a police car drove by
or I heard a siren in the second year of
my college I met other undocumented
folks other undocumented immigrants for
the first time and it changed my life on
a bright sunny day on a rooftop deck
overlooking Lake Merritt my family and I
arrived to a scholarship ceremony and we
looked around and we saw other families
there and we leaned to each other and
whispered are all these other people
undocumented too and later on the
afternoon the reception would celebrate
young scholars with our families by our
side and I saw for the first time that
being undocumented could be filled with
so much joy so much support rather than
the shame and the stigma and the
positive energy that day was unlike
anything I had ever before associated
with being a documented that was in 2010
and that year was important because I
would continue to go on this journey of
redefining what it would mean to be an
undocumented immigrant I enrolled in
Professor Tyrone Hayes
since class actually here at Berkeley
intro to endocrinology and it was during
that class that students protested the
tuition hikes that were happening that
year by having a UC walk out day while I
was in solidarity I didn’t come to
America to miss class and so I went to
class but what professor Hayes did next
would stay with me forever instead of
lecturing he shared with us his story of
being one of the few African American
students an Ivy League institution he
shared with us the importance of carving
your own path when you are first so that
others could be there too he put up iron
signs words those who have the privilege
to act do know have the duty to act and
it was all a moment of clarity for me
for years I’ve been watching
undocumented youth speak up publicly
while people like my parents were
working day in and day out how could I
sit here in this lecture hall and do
nothing
no it was my duty to speak up about
being undocumented to influence the very
policies that affected my communities
and so I became deeply involved
immigrant rights activism I vote about
my immigration story I testified at the
State Capitol and in support of in-state
financial aid here in California and to
limit ice and police collaboration and I
learned through all of that that if we
come together as a community even as
undocumented immigrants
we could reclaim our agency and in 2012
two years later I graduated with honors
from Berkeley and molecular and cell
biology thank you now by this point I
knew that I wanted to become a doctor
from personal experiences of having very
little or no access to health care I
wanted to become a physician who would
change policies and influence the status
quo of how healthcare was delivered and
thereby impacting uninsured low-income
homeless immigrant communities the very
same I was a part of and have worked
with yet there were so many unanswered
questions is it even possible for me to
go to med school how would I do it and
at that point I always used to joke that
undocumented medical students were like
unicorns because we would ask around and
somebody would say that I had heard of
someone that had known of somebody that
went to med school but no one could
actually ever find the person and I just
thought they simply didn’t exist and
that was when I co-founded pre-health
dreamers an organization with a mission
of supporting and document immigrant
students in their health and science
careers with my colleagues Denise Rojas
and angel ku and what began as a quest
to find a unicorn became a community
around the nation that engaged in peer
advising in resource sharing and in
advocacy
we pictured to ourselves and asked what
if and document students could be
considered equally in their admissions
to graduate and professional schools
what if institutions would recognize
that our lived experiences leave us well
equipped to provide exceptional health
care and change the systems that have
kept us out what if we could recreate
that positive energy that I had felt on
that rooftop that day at that ceremony
and the more we believed it the more
schools we apply to the more hearts we
engage the more champions we found and
the more policies we changed and six
years later I am now one of 100 and
documented medical students around the
country
[Applause]
when I first gone to UCSF I made sure to
share my story far and wide because I
wanted every single undocumented student
to know that it was possible and that
they are not alone
and luckily along the way I was able to
have everybody that has helped me to
that point be with me I am one of eleven
million I am one of eight hundred
thousand I’m one of one hundred we’ve
been for the past year in a chapter of
crises everyday as an undocumented
policies and politics attempt to define
my world the 2016 election wondering
which executive order would rescind anka
whether or not Congress will or will not
do something these are all examples of
that reality but everybody here today
may not have been undocumented but we
are all a part of a community that has
faced injustice that have experienced
our rights being questioned and
experienced health inequities and so we
must remember that crises are also
opportunities we could give up turn the
other way or we could take no for an
answer and use our agency for change so
the question today is how are we all
going to engage in the policies and
politics that allow people like me to
become American thank you
you
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