- I think I was too young
to understand the medical aspect of it,
I was more hurt by not being with my grandmother.
And during that time, I just kept questioning my mom,
"Why, why, why?"
After her diagnosis of hepatitis A and it being contagious,
my mom isolated her from us.
With the improper health literacy that my mom had,
she was unable to understand
how to properly prevent transmission,
while also allowing her grandchildren to be in her life.
And so for her last final years,
my grandmother stayed into a room by herself
and later passed away due to complications with her liver.
(solemn music)
My name is Asma Dahir,
I'm a second year student
in the Masters of Physician Assistant Program
here at Stanford University.
My family's originally from Somalia,
they fled Somalia after the Civil War in 1992.
My parents then went to the refugee camps in Kenya
and stayed there until 1998,
where they sought refuge in America.
I have a fairly big family, 15 siblings.
My father stayed behind,
because there wasn't enough spots to resettle,
and so my mom came to America with all of us.
She didn't speak English.
I think my passion for medicine came
from my grandmother not having adequate care,
and that separation that I had.
My twin sister, Anisa and I,
have been really close growing up,
we were the only two students who were Black,
Muslim, and refugee backgrounds,
and so we really leaned on each other
to really support one another
in terms of learning the language
and also being advocates for each other
when we were facing bullying.
We took every single class together
until we got caught cheating, (laughs)
and that was in third grade,
and so they separated us, and we came back together,
and took every single course from eighth grade on.
And when we were applying to PA school,
we really challenged ourselves to go
to opposite sides of the country.
So Anisa's is at Tufts University
pursuing her PA and Ph degree
and I'm here at Stanford getting my PA degree.
(gentle music)
I'm going to keep pulling her hair 'til she joins.
It's hard, Anisa!
We're getting into finals.
Finals are like, in three weeks,
and I've been procrastinating,
so I need our study session to happen.
- I'm here, I got you.
- Through this experience, it has been really interesting
trying to navigate the world without her.
However, we still study together via FaceTime,
calling each other every single day.
Originally, I did not know what the PA profession was.
I was exposed to it
when I entered my concurrent enrollment program
in surgical technology.
I worked closely with surgical PAs,
I realized that they're the ones who had the pre
and post-op appointments.
They knew the most about the patients,
and that's what I wish my grandmother had,
someone who would sit down and explain
and allow her to understand her disease.
And so when I learned about the profession,
I chose to become a PA
due to that patient-centric framework.
One of the reasons why I applied to Stanford
is the Community Health leadership track.
That allowed me to really pursue my passion
in integrating public health and medicine together
in order to provide diagnostic care
and really helping marginalized communities.
Whenever we faced challenges,
my mom would always tell me and my siblings,
(Asma speaking foreign language)
which means, without education, there will be no light.
And she would say this to encourage us
to continue to go to school.
With education, the light will be within
and will always be with us.
(gentle music)