Fort Worth Medical Students Talk About Their Heritage For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

FORT WORTH – The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine celebrated Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by having several of our medical students talk about their heritage and personal experiences that led them into medicine.

Second-year medical students Faria Khimani, Sujata Ojha, Lucas Yoon and first-year medical student Yolancee Nguyen participated in the candid conversations.

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month | Student Spotlight: Faria Khimani, MS-2

Faria Khimani, MS-2, was born and raised in Pakistan before moving to San Antonio at the age of 11.

“I think for the one or two months before we were going to move I was trying to convince my parents out of moving,” Khimani said. “But it was time to move because of the better educational opportunities.”

Faria has not traveled back to Pakistan in  more than 15 years, but hopes of visiting her home country again in the future.

“I know it’s going to be really fun but I don’t want it to be a two or three day thing,” Khimani said. “I think it deserves its own little half-month special trip back to the motherland.”

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month | Student Spotlight: Yolancee Nguyen

Yolancee Nguyen, MS-1, was born and raised in Utah. Despite not seeing many people in medicine that shared her own heritage growing in Utah she was still able to find a spark for it

“My dad was an immigrant from Vietnam and my mom was also an immigrant from Vietnam but she is of Chinese descent,” Nguyen said. “I couldn’t find a reason why I wanted to be a part of medicine for the longest time but even though it sounds cliché I really wanted to help people.”

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month | Student Spotlight: Sujata Ojha

Sujata Ojha, MS-2, says growing up in Nepal wasn’t the easiest thing in the world.

“Life in Nepal is very different from the life in the United States,” Ojha said. “When I was very young there was a civil war and a revolution going on in Nepal so there was quite a lot of distress in the general population so it was tough for sure.”

Ojha’s parents sought out a better education and a better future for her and her brother when they moved to the United States. She hopes that her medical education and training will allow her return to Nepal one day as a physician.

“My final goal as a physician is still to be able to go back to Nepal and provide free care and a free clinic,” Ojha said.

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month | Student Spotlight: Lucas Yoon

Lucas Yoon, MS-2, was born in Argentina to parents of South Korean descent. Lucas’s parents met in Argentina and grew a family in the province of Córdoba. His parents moved from Argentina to South America seeking a better opportunity for their family.

“Back in the 1980’s, there was a big immigration movement from Korea to Argentina,” said Yoon.

Lucas faced struggles in Argentina that were similar to what many immigrants faced  in the United States. He added that he used humor as a coping mechanism along with the love and support from his parents.

“Growing up, there were not a lot of Asian people that lived in Argentina so there was this sense of novelty or curiosity from Argentinians towards Asians,” Yoon said. “At the same time, there was quite a bit of racism. It was very hard to grow up with.”

“The entire pandemic was very hard for a lot of different communities because of that fear of the unknown,” Yoon said. “That translated to a lot of racism and aggression towards the Asian communities. We shouldn’t discriminate. We should come together as a community to tackle these problems.”