Tina Wu, originally from Glendale, Arizona, was only 15 years old when she witnessed the impact of HIV/AIDS in her community.
“I was babysitting kids who were infected or affected by the HIV, meaning either they had HIV or their parents had HIV, and just to see the struggle and stigma associated with HIV was very moving,” Wu said.
Wu’s observations soon blossomed beyond a basic high school volunteering experience.
“I began to be very curious about why disease was so widespread, why there was so much stigma, the epidemiology, and some of the reasoning behind the spread of the disease,” she said.
Wu, who eventually began to travel, arrived in Tanzania where she met Matthew Craven, with whom she co-founded an organization called Support for International Change in 2002. Wu explained that the lack of health care and HIV/AIDS education in Tanzania motivated her to found SIC. Today, the organization provides opportunities for students to educate Tanzanian communities about HIV prevention, she said.
Wu’s contributions have since expanded with her tenure as the first Global AIDS Fellow for the American Medical Student Association from 2005 to 2006. For her exceptional commitment, Wu, now a 29-year-old fourth-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine, recently received the $10,000 Physicians of Tomorrow scholarship from the American Medical Association Foundation, according to a statement.
The yearly Physicians of Tomorrow scholarship is supported by the Audio-Digest Foundation, which recognizes a medical student’s commitment to mentoring, educating and/or teaching, the statement stated.
Steven Churchill, the executive director of the American Medical Association Foundation, said that the scholarship awards outstanding students for their academic excellence, involvement in extracurricular activities, and impact in their communities.
Created in 2004, the Physicians of Tomorrow Scholarships aim to provide financial assistance to U.S. medical students, who, on average, graduate with a debt of approximately $155,000, according to a statement.
Wu, who was nominated by the David Geffen School of Medicine, is one of only 10 students in the nation to receive the scholarship.
Wu said since SIC’s inception, over 300 volunteers from UCLA and around the world have traveled to east Africa for the past four years and educated about 200,000 people. In addition to education, SIC has created mobile testing clinics at which Tanzanians have access to HIV volunteer counseling and testing.
During her position as AMSA’s first Global AIDS Fellow, Wu advocated for an $8 billion, 5-year policy initiative that would provide more health care workers to the developing world, she said. Countries in the developing world are in a brain drain situation in which doctors and other health care personnel leave their home countries, she added.
“What we found was over the years, the US was providing a lot of medication support and they used to think that with HIV drugs, if you would send them to the developing world, everyone would somehow receive them,” Wu said. “That turned out not to be true, in that they need health care people to help the workers to administer them, to monitor, etc., so we started an initiative to provide more health care workers to the developing world.”
Dr. Jay Bhatt, president of AMSA from 2006 to 2007, said that Wu, being AMSA’s first Global Health fellow, played a significant role in shaping AMSA’s global health work. “I think she is very motivated,” Bhatt added. “She cares deeply about the public good.”
Wu currently plans to specialize in Emergency Medicine or Internal Medicine. After receiving her MBA from Harvard Business School earlier this year, Wu said she hopes that a joint MD/MBA degree will allow her to continue her interests in policy and administration in global health work. Wu said she also hopes to direct “on the ground” work and continue to contribute to communities that need assistance with more medical care.
“I think that the AMA is helping students pay (their loans) off and by giving so, we (medical students) can focus on making a difference in the world rather than this amazing debt that we have. It helps people go into primary care and helps take the focus off of high-paying specialties, so I’m grateful for getting it,” Wu added.
For more information about Support for International Change and the organization’s volunteer programs, visit sichange.org.