As a Chinese-American nursing student who grew up in the heart of Oakland, California’s Chinatown neighborhood, Debby Li has a profound understanding of how language barriers can cause deep disparities in health care – and a passion to be part of the solution. “Nurses are the first point of contact for patients during a moment of vulnerability,” she said. “I want to be a source of comfort and ease their fear and their anxiety.”

Debby’s cultural heritage was a huge part of her upbringing. In addition to English, she speaks three varieties of Chinese – Taishanese (which was historically the most common dialect spoken by Chinese immigrants to North America through the mid-20th century), Cantonese and Mandarin.

Her parents pushed her to pursue academic excellence. They made sacrifices and put Debby and her sister before themselves, working late and skipping vacations to make sure their daughters had the opportunities and privileges they never had. “They are my primary inspiration,” Debby said.

But she also saw how her parents were reluctant to go to the doctor, often due to communication difficulties. “I feel like there’s a lot of cultural hesitance to enter the hospital setting for a lot of minorities, like my own parents,” she said. “Hospital settings can be very daunting. Even simple medical terms can be hard to understand, even for native English speakers.”

Last summer, as part of a research study, Debby had many one-on-one conversations with recent Chinese immigrants who were also new mothers. The same themes kept appearing, over and over again.

“Most of the participants said they had to figure out a lot of things on their own,” she said. “They wanted the nurses to teach them rather than them having to ask, because they were scared to ask – scared that the nurse might not understand them, or they might not understand the nurse.”

As a nursing student at the University of Pennsylvania, Debby is hoping to use her language skills to help bridge that gap. “Having a cultural and language connection would make them more comfortable to take that first step and navigate the hospital setting,” she said. “I endeavor to be the kind of nurse who sees the fear in a patient’s eyes and replaces it with reassurance, not just through medical knowledge, but through words spoken in a language they understand.”

Debby is especially interested in working with kids and families, and exploring general pediatrics, NICU, and labor and delivery as potential specialties. She also plans to pursue a doctorate in nursing anesthesiology after gaining a few years of experience as a bedside nurse.

And the Founders Memorial Scholarship – which her mother, a longtime Amway IBO, urged her to apply for – will help her take a huge step forward.

“This will have an amazing impact on me and my family,” she said. “The Founders’ Fundamentals align so closely with what I believe, and how I hope to give back and bring hope to the world. Hope is so important to me. I doubted myself a lot, but I took a chance. I don’t think I would be where I am today if I didn’t have hope.”