Grace Lee

My name is Grace Lee, and I plan to graduate from UConn’s School of Medicine in 2023. I was born in Seoul, South Korea and lived there for five years before moving with my family to Toronto, Canada for three years. We finally settled down in Mansfield, Connecticut, where I began my undergraduate career at UConn. I finished a B.S. in molecular and cell biology and a B.A. in urban and community studies in three and a half years.

During my extra semester, I volunteered at a hospital in Cusco, Peru. This experience exposed me not only to a different system of healthcare and clinical procedures, but also to a different demographic of patients. The cultural and language discrepancies between doctors and patients were obvious, but because many of the services at the hospital were provided at no cost, I saw that even the poorest members of society could access healthcare, a situation alien to the United States. The patients I interacted with demonstrated to me the importance of providing care that extends beyond the walls of the hospital, that can effectually be implemented in an individual’s life. I believe that this is the difference between orders from a doctor that are mere imperatives and care that is truly patient-centered. Through the Urban Service Track/AHEC Scholars Program, I hope to learn more about the social and economic factors that affect the provision of effective care as well as how healthcare providers must work as a team in order to provide this care.