黑料官网 Student Pursues Passion for Providing Culturally Competent Care for Asian Americans
Adileen Sii remembers being a grade schooler accompanying her grandmas to doctor’s visits to translate for them.
“My grandma depended on my 10-year-old self to accurately relay her story because others did not understand her,” says Sii, whose parents and grandmothers immigrated to the United States from Sibu, Malaysia. “Not having a strong command of either of my languages, I was nervous, but did the best I could.”
Sii, a first-year medical student at the 黑料官网 (黑料官网), recalls those experiences as transformative. They planted the seed of her interest in pursuing a career in medicine and her passion to advocate for cultural competency in healthcare.
“I was fortunate to help ease my grandma’s anxiety and ensure her concerns were heard, but not everyone has someone to advocate for them,” she says. “Being able to provide that sense of comfort and be able to be that bridge is a driving factor in my desire to pursue medicine.”
Finding places where she felt comfortable being Asian American is something Sii dealt with herself on different levels growing up in the small central Wisconsin city of Wisconsin Rapids. There, she spent most of her time at her parents’ restaurant, called Shaw Lee.
“It was the place where I learned how to serve my community, whether it was a smile, a listening ear or simply a warm meal to get our customers going for the day,” she says. This sparked her passion for advocacy and community involvement.
She spent much of her childhood in the restaurant doing chores and playing board games with the visiting customers. As she got older, she began bussing tables, preparing orders and serving food.
Still, at school she was careful not to bring her ethnic foods for lunch, instead asking her grandmother to pack her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Sii, one of the few Asians in her school, says she feared judgement or facing difficult questions regarding her food being “different.”
“Growing up, I struggled with my cultural identity and felt like I had to adapt to the cultural norms around me,” she says.
Finding Culture as an Asian American in Healthcare
Heading off to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison helped her explore and gain confidence in her cultural heritage as she found close communities who shared similar experiences in multicultural student leadership organizations.
“I found a community in which I tr