‘I Work on Both Sides; Trying to Get My Community to Wake Up, While Bringing Awareness to Issues Hidden by Our Culture’.
Breakfast: Avocado toast and egg whites
Hometown: Westminster, California
Extracurriculars: Reading and writing poetry, and playing badminton. I’m also an amateur boxer and mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter.
Hoisum Nguyen is graduating with her MPH this spring. We sat down with her to learn more about her BUSPH experience and how she plans to apply what she has learned into her public health practice moving forward.
What led you to become interested in public health?
My initial plan was to attend medical school, but then I travelled to China to teach English and also a class on social equity. I focused a lot on how social health and race affects people from different cultures who immigrate to America. From there, I wanted to learn more about population health. I wasn’t satisfied with only addressing individual health in a clinical setting. So I considered a degree in public health because it was the main program that explored health on a population level. Once I returned from China, I applied to BUSPH, and I now have my MPH.
Why did you choose BUSPH?
I applied to several competitive programs, but when I compared each curriculum, BUSPH had more flexibility and diversity. Also, the classes at BUSPH had more conceptual and applicable depth. For example, we could investigate gender inequality as a health risk and explore questions like, “What does it mean to be LGBTQ?” and “How does that affect your health?” And then there were applicable skills like advocacy, health policy, and data disaggregation which I feel were not emphasized at the other schools I applied to. So, I leaned much more towards BUSPH because of those two main things: flexibility and diversity. And also because they provided the most financial assistance.
What social justice issues are you passionate about and how are you putting that passion into action?
Two social justice issues that I am passionate about would be mental health disparities within the Asian American community and improving how Asian American communities interact with other black and brown communities. Calling out my Asian American community in regards to racial inequities is important, especially when we could do more to address social injustices.
Increasing awareness of Asian American health disparities is also important because the model minority myth is not true. Mental health, domestic violence, and suicide are not things we often talk about because of cultural reasons. Without collecting the proper data, we overlook the various health issues faced by Asian Americans, issues like intergenerational trauma, suicidality, mental health, and violence by firearms. These are issues that I developed an affinity for because of my work with a research team at the School of Social Work (SSW) – all of our members are Asian American women. Coming from Southern California where I lived in a predominantly Asian American community to Boston where I only knew 1-2 Asian people, it was nice to join a team that was equally passionate about unearthing health problems in the Asian community. We do a lot of social research on Asian Americans specifically their immigration patterns and mental health experiences. And based on the statistics from our population samples, we were able to gauge the mental health disparities of first and second-generation Asian Americans, even those impacted by the Vietnam War. Now I find myself working on both sides, trying to get my community to wake up, but also trying to bring awareness to the things that my community likes to hide because of cultural reasons.
How are you engaging your community around public health issues?
Right now, I’m so early in my research career as a social epidemiologist that I haven’t quite figured out the mechanics of engaging large groups. My research team works with smaller communities in Massachusetts that have Asian residents and we discuss mental health topics with parents who need help communicating with their kids. Our job is to start the conversation and remind people that mental health is a real thing. We’ve offered mental health programs for parents and students in high schools and universities throughout Massachusetts. But we also acknowledge that the problem with managing mental health challenges is accessibility. Some simply have less access to mental health resources compared to those who are privileged. And I also bring up these topics when I am home. I’ve gotten into a lot of family arguments about the model minority myth, and had to establish boundaries. I’m not going to have conversations that are racist, sexist, or homophobic. And I think when my younger cousins, nieces and nephews see me having those types of conversations with the older adults (the authority figures) in our family, it gives them more room to speak up and talk about the issues that have been taught to hide.
How do you use your other talents in your public health practice?
As a social entrepreneur, I opened a business in Southern California and positioned it between two low resource communities that struggled to communicate with each other, specifically the Hispanic and Asian communities. Both communities shared a lot of space but there was little intermingling. Meanwhile, kids from both communities were in similar conditions: their parents were often working and they didn’t have anywhere to go after school. My business was geared towards giving those kids a safe space to hang out with their friends. We also raised funds for additional after school programs for kids in our communities. We supported their music, sporting, and other recreational programs. My business was a community-oriented family store that sold beverages and snacks, but it was also a safe place where parents knew that they could pick up their kids. At the time, I didn’t think this was a public health venture, but looking back it definitely was.
Before that, I worked as a designer and stylist for a suiting company located in San Francisco that was oriented towards the LGBTQ community. The company provided custom suits and a safe space for LGBTQ individuals of all backgrounds to create their own style as professionals who are also sexual minorities. And because we had LGBTQ customers who considered themselves non-binary or trans, we also facilitated conversations about body positivity and body dysmorphia to help them better understand their own personal image. It was really a creative environment and a beautiful experience. And again, I didn’t see this as a public health ordeal at the time, but it was.
What do you see in your future post BUSPH?
I am looking forward to continuing my research on Asian American health disparities and increasing their participation in data collection. But, I also want to help Asian Americans, especially LGBTQ Asian Americans, to reflect on their family experiences and body perceptions which I think will occur in a more creative space.
My time at BUSPH has been so transformative. We explore so many complex topics that force us to question our own biases, to question what we’ve accepted is okay, and what we haven’t accepted is okay. I think every person I’ve talked to, and every friend and mentor that I’ve made has played a pivotal role in my growth as an individual. BUSPH laid a foundation for how I engage and advocate for my community and other communities of color. I’ve learned valuable personal and professional skills for modeling proper ethics and morality beyond the field of public health. My time at BUSPH was priceless.