About Me:
Welcome to my site. I put together my personal website so I could share my research, art, and some experiences so far.
My journey to medicine and now general surgery began with a strong and determined role model, my mother. At the age of only seventeen, she survived the Khmer Rouge genocide and spent over 4 years in a forced labor camp, escaping only after the murder of her father. Growing up, she spoke candidly about her harrowing past; she wove the knowledge of her experiences into how she taught me to understand the world. She placed a strong emphasis on education and the importance of using my privilege to help others.
Her teaching provided the framework for the woman I am and the doctor I wish to be.
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
Buddha
My educational pathway into surgery was both unique and circuitous. In college I studied fashion design; working with my hands came naturally as both my parents worked as trade professionals. The end of college was punctuated by the loss of my favorite aunt to cancer. Taking her to and from doctors’ appointments and watching her wither away in a hospital bed had a profound effect. The experience inspired me to seek a career that felt meaningful, a career where I could help others and that search culminated with medicine.
Surgery blends my passion for medicine with many of the aspects I enjoyed most about design as surgery allows for creative problem solving and innovation.