Commitment to caring recognized

Personal experience called Kristy Huynh to pursue a career in medicine.

Whether it was translating at her mother's doctor's appointments as a teenager or volunteering to read to children, Huynh has always seen the connection between humanity and healing.

"I want to be a physician a role where healing is more than a job; where caring and compassion should be a daily practice," she wrote on her medical school applications.

Huynh's commitment to healing, compassion and caring will be honored at the 2007 AdmirAsian Achievement Awards hosted by the Iowa Asian Alliance.

Huynh, a 21-year-old-senior at Iowa State University and Des Moines Roosevelt High School alumna, will receive the Iowa Asian Alliance's Outstanding Youth award Saturday night.

The awards, held annually for six years, recognize individuals and organizations that epitomize leadership and community service.

Huynh's academic excellence, volunteering and community involvement embody precisely what the Iowa Asian Alliance established in 2002 to achieve, leaders of the group say.

"In everything she does, I think she's clearly a leader," said San Wong, chairwoman of the Alliance's board of directors.

Huynh recalls how much it meant to her when she served as a translator between her mother, Oanh Nguyen, and her doctor while Huynh was in high school.

Her mother speaks little English and although communication with her doctor often was difficult, Huynh was always impressed by how much the doctor strived to help her mother.

"That made me really want to help people and be a physician," she said.

One of Huynh's many volunteer activities was reading to children in the waiting room at the McFarland Clinic in Ames.

One little boy she read to stands out in her mind. After visiting the doctor, the 4- or 5-year-old boy came back through the waiting room and found a crayon and a piece of paper.

He asked for his mother's help to write his name and Huynh's name on the paper, and after some prodding from his mother, he ran to Huynh, hugged her and gave her the drawing.

"It was so sweet," Huynh recalls. "Just to be able to make a small difference in someone's life is very rewarding."

Huynh's desire to make a difference in the lives of others is motivated largely by the influence her family has had on her, she said.

Her father, Thien Huynh, traveled by boat to the United States from Vietnam after the Vietnam War. Their lives would've been very different were it not for her father's hard work to bring the entire family to the United States, Kristy Huynh said.

Receiving an award is the furthest thing from her mind when she volunteers and helps others, she said. That's why she wants to share it with her parents and her brothers - Duy and Dung Huynh.

"My parents are a wonderful part of who I am and so are my brothers," she said.

Huynh plans to graduate in spring 2008 from Iowa State, where she majors in biology and minors in psychology. She also is in the midst of medical school interviews and will decide soon where she will attend.

Reporter Jason Pulliam can be reached at (515) 284-8214 or jpulliam@dmreg.com