March 1, 2007
Luu receives 2007 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship
First-year medical student Ngoc-Phuong Luu has been awarded the 2007 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship. She is one 31 new fellows to receive the award that was created in 1997 to support graduate study by new Americans — immigrants and children of immigrants. Explaining the fellowship in an interview, Paul Soros said: “Immigrants have made great contributions to this country, throughout the entire history of the United States. Our purpose is to find people among today’s immigrants who have the potential to make such contributions in the future, and to enable them to succeed in their chosen fields by providing funds for their graduate studies.”
With the Soros fellowship, Luu has the opportunity to join 293 others who have been awarded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship. In the past nine cometitions, 262 fellowships have been given. There are now 58 fellows at 21 universities studying in 21 different fields. There are also 204 alumni, including authors of 27 books, 24 patents, three composers whose work was premiered this year by leading orchestras, and 35 clerkships for federal judges, with five clerking at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Luu is part of the UW School of Medicine’s Underserved Pathway Program. She is specializing in primary care and envisions a career in public health policy.
Luu was born in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Her father spent several years as a prisoner of war in a “re-education” camp after the Vietnam war was over and, on the basis of the Orderly Departure Program of the U.S. government, she and her family were given asylum. She came to the United States with her parents in 1990. They are now naturalized U.S. citizens and live in Seattle.
As spokesperson for her parents in dealing with medical problems, Luu learned early what it was like to be underserved medically. She later participated in volunteer medical projects in Belize and Mexico. These experiences taught her the need to provide for those outside of the health-care safety net.
Luu received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Seattle University, graduating magna cum laude in 2005. During her time at SU, Luu worked with Habitat for Humanity. She was named a Gates Millennium Scholar and Sullivan Scholar. As a Truman Fellow, she served as staff member of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Luu was a participant in the UW School of Medicine’s Minority Medical Education Program that exposes minority students to career opportunities in medicine. That experience added to Luu’s commitment to service through medicine.
“I have always been struck by the warmth of staff and faculty at the School of Medicine and its commitment to serving underserved populations. I’m interested in health-care advocacy and policy. I chose the UW because of its primary care program and its commitment to caring for the underserved in urban and rural areas.”
As a medical student, Luu has worked at various health clinics, the Hepatitis B campaign through the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association, and has been a leader at the UW with the organization ImproveHealthCare.org.
