Meet Van Pham ’17

Van Pham ’17 is one of those people that can just brighten your day with a smile.  She’s witty, kind, creative and brilliant.  Get to know Van, this week’s Campus Profile!

Tell me about where are you from:

I’m local to Brighton/Allston, which is a subsection of Boston, and to my Vietnamese-American household. This translates to small me in a big family in an even bigger city.  

How does the weather at Amherst compare to the weather back home?:

Relatively the same, except home isn’t currently in a drought.    

Why did you choose to attend Amherst?:

Open curriculum + financial aid + small professor : student ratio + those students from GAD’s who made my tour infinitely better/welcoming = Dreams    

What are you interested in both academically and leisurely?:

The way in which people can share their stories/communicate is important to me. How they can tell/show it, if they’re able to, and why they may do so in the first place keep me awake. For me, the underlying molecular mechanisms in the brain and how they add up to enable someone to do that is what I study academically. Leisurely, investing myself in conversations and narratives made by other people in various forms of entertainment – novels, films, tv shows, video games, art, etc – also hits that interest.

What are you passionate about the most?:

Integrative healthcare. There’s just so many resources available to people who may need it, but they don’t use it because they just don’t know about it??? And no one who SHOULD know tells them??? The way medicine is traditionally done in the US has a lot of problems, but this is one that always gets me into a debate if someone brings it up because transfer of information really shouldn’t be a problem when it comes to someone’s life.

Tell me the best memory of your first year:

I have a lot with my friends and I can’t pick a ‘best’ of those, so I would say that time when Professor Staller invited the class to her house for a meal after we went to the MFA. The experience was magical. As a first year, I didn’t really know that Amherst professors were so open to sharing their mind/lives with you. Without even asking!  

What are your plans for the rest of your time at Amherst and beyond:

To make myself, those close to me, and those I encounter, laugh more and reach for new experiences a little more. Specific actions, I’m not sure to the minute details, but so long as I have ambition, it’ll work out.  

What is the best compliment you’ve received?:

“You? Not confident? Nah.”

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