Growing up, it wasn’t unusual for my family and me to visit a doctor’s office several times a week. As immigrants, my family has experienced a great deal of discrimination in the healthcare system—from being ignored when asking for help in understanding medical jargon, to having our symptoms dismissed for menial illnesses just to be diagnosed with something serious weeks or months later. These experiences ignited my passion for equitable access to healthcare, particular support for immigrants in the healthcare system, and collaborative healthcare policy designed through open dialogue and partnerships with communities experiencing health-based discrimination. In everything I do, I strive to make healthcare more innovative, effective, and inclusive, so other families do not have the same experiences my family had.

My community has been integral in supporting and motivating my community-based action and initiatives. I want to include a special thank you to my network of family and friends, whose moral support and kindness encourage me to keep working hard and remind me how fortunate I am to be in a position to give back to others. To my team at Youth Leaders in Law: thank you for showing me that friendship and creativity are essential to strong impacts. To my peers at the RCMP: thank you for demonstrating that distance (and timezones) cannot obstruct phenomenal teamwork.

My immediate circle is not the only group that provides the inspiration behind my actions. When I see the people in my communities struggling with the issues I seek to resolve—whether it be access to healthcare, inadequate opportunities for quality education, or others—it reminds me of the goals that I am working towards and to be persistent in my change-making every day.

Partnership and collaboration mean having an open exchange of feedback, creative ideas, and most importantly, constructive criticism to allow each part involved in change-making work to learn, grow, and improve in a meaningful way. On a personal level, I apply this principle to every project, task, and initiative I am part of by consulting as many diverse opinions as possible—including those that I may not have considered or accepted right away—to ensure that multiple angles are considered to yield optimal, holistic results.