Meet the Team: Michelle Tu and Vivian Nguyen, Training and Technical Assistance Interns
Welcome to our blog series, “Meet the AAPCHO Team,” where you’ll have a chance to get to know our staff! Meet two of our summer interns, Michelle Tu and Vivian Nguyen, Training and Technical Assistance Interns.
Michelle Tu
How did you hear about AAPCHO?
I heard about AAPCHO through Health Career Connection (HCC), which helps connect undergraduate and recent college graduate students to various healthcare, public health, behavioral health and biopharma organizations. I applied to their Summer 2023 HCC Internship program and was fortunate enough to be matched with AAPCHO!
Who is an Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander health champion that you think people should know about?
I’d love to highlight Erika L. Moritsugu, who is the current Deputy Assistant to the President and first White House senior liaison to the Asian American (AA), Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NH/PI) communities since April 2021. She engages with AA and NHPI communities and leaders on significant matters like advancing safety, justice, inclusion, and opportunity for AA and NH/PI communities using a whole-of-government approach for achieving racial justice.
What are you most looking forward to during your internship with AAPCHO?
I am highly looking forward to gaining more exposure in the public health and policy field and building my skills in research and writing. I am excited to contribute to meaningful projects and work alongside my mentors and fellow interns.
What are your plans after your internship with AAPCHO?
I am not 100% sure yet, but I’d love to pursue an MBA/MPH dual degree program within the next few years!
What is your favorite or go-to childhood comfort food?
My family is Burmese so my mom would cook a lot of Mohinga which is a rice noodle and fish-based broth soup dish! It’s also known as Myanmar’s national dish, and I still need to learn the recipe from her haha!
Vivian Nguyen
How did you hear about AAPCHO?
I heard about AAPCHO through Health Career Connections (HCC), an internship that allows young working professionals to gain experience in different healthcare professions to help them further develop their goals and gain experiences/skills. Based on my passions and goals, HCC matched me with AAPCHO! Upon further research, I found that AAPCHO is an authentic and community-based organization that I would love to learn from and be a part of. Overall, I am very excited to be interning with them this summer!
Who is an Asian American (AA), Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander (NH/PI) health champion that you think people should know about?
An AA champion that I think people should know about is Dr. David Ho. I first learned about Dr. Ho in one of my public health courses during high school. And since then, I have been inspired by Dr. Ho’s tenacity and dedication to working toward improving the lives ofpeople living with HIV/AIDs. His whole life’s work has been centered around HIV/AIDs research, however, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he shifted his efforts towardsCOVID-19 research. He is an overall phenomenal person, and I believe he deserves more recognition for the work he does!
What are you most looking forward to during your internship with AAPCHO?
As a future healthcare professional, I am most looking forward to learning more about how to better address and serve the needs of AA and NH/PI communities. And not just that, but also learn to be an effective advocate for them. Through my life experiences and acquired knowledge from undergraduate courses, I understand that people of color face many disparities when it comes to accessing health care. And so I hope to learn and find ways to help bridge this gap. Overall, I am looking forward to keeping my eyes, ears, and heart open to learning and gaining new experiences this summer.
What are your plans after your internship with AAPCHO?
After my internship with AAPCHO, I hope to take one to two gap years before applying to different nursing programs. I recently graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior and minors in Education and Psychology. Due to the academic rigor I experienced during my undergraduate years, I wasn’t able to partake in many activities or internships. So my hopes are to make up for that during my gap year, where I will hopefully gain experience in both clinical and non-clinical settings. I believe that being well-rounded in any profession is very important and I want to incorporate everything I learned and gain from my experiences into my future role as a nurse.
What is your favorite or go-to childhood comfort food?
My favorite childhood comfort food is this Vietnamese dish called banh bot loc. It is a steamed tapioca dumpling filled with caramelized pork and shrimp. It is both sweet and savory. This dish is very nostalgic for me because I grew up cleaning the banana leaves that my grandma uses to wrap the banh bot loc. So the hard work that we put into making this dish makes the meal even more rewarding and delicious!
