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Alum Makes Healthy Choice
5/21/2007
 One of her professors in International Studies kept telling 25-year-old UST alum Sarah Duong to look outside of her own back yard so that she could make a difference by the career she chose.
Two years before she graduated in 2005, and keeping in mind that advice by Dr. Gustavo Wensjoe, director of the Center for International Studies, she decided to forgo the lofty salaries of private medical practice and go into public health, serving people in underdeveloped countries. This spring, Duong was back at UST to complete a prerequisite course in biochemistry because she’s been accepted to the University of Texas School of Public Health’s medical school in San Antonio. She is almost finished with her master’s degree in public health at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston,
She has been working at the Baylor College of Medicine doing undergraduate research all through her undergraduate years. After graduation, she worked there as a full-time research assistant for a year.
The very thought of medical school is somewhat intimidating to her, she says, but she’s determined to succeed.
In the back of her head, she hears her mother’s gentle urging to get the best education she can, and that coaxing has always inspired her. With her graduation, she became the first member of her family to get a college diploma.
”She just encouraged me to go to college; she didn’t care what profession I chose,” Duong said, “but she was really happy about medical school.”
Duong’s mother and father, who died in 2003, didn’t have the chance to get a college education. Her father was Chinese, but his family lived in Vietnam. Her mother is part Chinese and part Vietnamese, but her family lived in Cambodia. They moved to the United States in 1980, and Duong was born six months later. Her mother works as a merchandise analyst at Garden Ridge Pottery; her father worked at a rubber manufacturing plant before he died.
Her mother also set an example for her children: While working and mothering Duong and her four older brothers, she also took English proficiency classes at Houston Community College.
Duong credits both Dr. Wensjoe and her faculty advisor, Dr. Linda Pett-Conklin, for keeping her on track when she felt overwhelmed.
“My experience at St. Thomas has been very mind-opening,” Duong said. “I didn’t feel like I was limited at all going to a smaller university. It has a diverse group of students and great professors. Instead of being limiting, I think it was the other way around.”
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