2009-2010 Leadership

I was born in Washington, D.C. but completed most of my education in Pittsburgh, PA. I was truly blessed to have parents who sacrificed a lot for their childrens' education, and a wonderful mother who taught me how to cook delicious Ecuadorian food, especially tamales! I attended Harvard for college where I studied English and American Language and Literature and received a Citation in Spanish Language and Literature. During my time there, I founded Adelante!, a mentoring and character education program for underprivileged Latina and African American high school girls. I also spent a summer in the Dominican Republic working alongside a local dentist in a small rural clinic. We traveled to various mountain villages to provide not only dental work but also appropriate health education which was critical in a place with no running water or electricity. Over the years, I also worked in several surgery labs before and after graduation. Since coming to Stanford, I have decided to pursue clinical research and I am currently working on a project that evaluates patient follow-up patterns in ophthalmology. I have enjoyed helping with SUMMA, UIM Recruitment, and Community Outreach for LMSA, and I am excited to be helping the LMSA community as one of the co-chairs this coming year! If you have any questions about LMSA, feel free to contact me at acyoung@stanford.edu.

I grew up in Oxnard, California where I spent my early years in my mother’s dental office.  There I played and conversed with patients while my grandmother kept an eye on me from her receptionist desk.  The great friendships I formed in my mother’s office sparked my interest in Latino communities and healthcare and ruminated in the back of my mind throughout middle and high school. For college, I traveled to Baltimore, Maryland to attend Johns Hopkins.   At Hopkins, I spent the majority of my time playing on the tennis team and doing research in a Cardiology laboratory.  Since starting at Stanford, I’ve continued to follow my Cardiovascular interests by doing clinical research on deep vein thromboses.  I have begun pursuing an interest in hospital quality improvement by participating in hand hygiene and core measure efforts.  Lastly, I had the opportunity to be co-chair for the SUMMA Minority Mentorship program and have become co-chair of LMSA this year. 

I’m from California.  In fact, my ancestors first came to California in the 1760s and we’ve been here ever since (we have an ancestral home in Old Town, San Diego).  I am also an unusual mix.  My mother and father were both part Native American, so I share tribal affiliations with the Cherokees and the Juanenos of Southern California. My mother was also Mexican.  I grew up with her very large and extended Mexican family in San Diego.

With my unusual background, I am active in LMSA, serving as the treasurer. I am also active in serving as the co-chair of SAIMS (the Stanford Indigenous Medical Student group).

I went to college here at Stanford, and I was the first person in my family, on both my mother's and my father's side, to attend college.  I studied English literature and Russian history, then went on to Harvard Divinity School to study theology and philosophy.  I also studied theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology.  While I was at Harvard, I decided to take my premedical courses in preparation for medical school.  I’m now here at Stanford in the MD program, and my future career interests range between ophthalmology and internal medicine.