Los Angeles resident Trisha Therese was born in New York, and is currently going through medical school. As her Haiti-born parents brought her up in the Empire State, they taught her French and Creole, and exposed her to Haitian culture and traditions. Trisha Therese has made it a point to use her skills as a medical student to help some of Haiti’s population. Here’s the story of how she went about doing that…but first, let’s get a feel for her background!

Kreyolicious: When did you first become aware of the need to serve?
Trisha Therese: From a young age, my parents made me very aware of the fact that there are less fortunate people all around the world, including Haiti. When I was younger they encouraged me to help sort my unused clothes and toys for donations and as I got older, they taught me the importance of service and giving back to my community. They led by example by being generous with their resources and time to causes that were important to them. The older I got, the more I wanted to find impactful ways to make a difference in my community.

Whether it was volunteering through my church, or creating my own opportunity to give back, for me it was never a question of whether I wanted to serve. It was more of an issue of trying to find a way to combine my unique interests and strengths to give back, and I have done so in various ways over the years. For instance, growing up, I was on a nationally ranked competitive cheerleading team (actually within the Top 3 in the country) and in college, I used my cheer experience to volunteer as a coach for a failing high school in Boston. To some it doesn’t seem like much, but to the girls I coached, they had a team they were proud of and they had an opportunity to have a safe and fun place to go after school ended. I used my strengths in math and science to tutor local high school students. And even now, I use my blog as a platform to mentor aspiring medical students who need help navigating the medical admissions process.

Professionally, my focus is on serving urban under-served and minority communities domestically and abroad (primarily in Haiti). I am at a medical school that has this exact mission and and it has been amazing to have classmates and advisors who are just as dedicated to this cause and the need to serve as I am.

Kreyolicious: What inspired you to become a doctor?
Trisha Therese: There are so many factors and experiences that influenced my decision to go into medicine and become a doctor. But for the sake of time I’ll list three: one, my mother who is a nurse; two, my pediatrician, and three, my global health experiences in Haiti.

When I was a child, my mom went back to school to advance her nursing degree. She always used to play her audio lectures everywhere including in the car and around the house. After listening to them for a while, I started to remember the facts the professor would teach. The material was always interesting to me especially the maternal and pediatric lectures and they helped uncover my initial interest in science and medicine. One day after listening to lectures, I told my mom that I thought I could do well in nursing school and told me that I was smart enough to be a doctor if I wanted to, and I haven’t looked back since. On days that she couldn’t find a babysitter, I would go with her to her job at the nursing home. I was supposed to sit in the break room and be quiet, but I’d some how end up roaming the halls. Sometimes I’d go to the lobby and play piano for the residents, or I’d visit my favorite patients in their room. On rare occasions I would follow my mom as she walked the halls of the nursing home. She remembered everything about all of her patients and they’d often tell me she was their favorite nurse. Even the patients’ families were always so delighted to see her. My mom is an example of someone who goes above and beyond for her patients and as a future healthcare professional, I’m so glad I got to witness this firsthand as a child.

In addition to my experiences in the nursing home, I also loved visiting my pediatrician. Doctor’s visits were more than a check-up and it was like visiting a family friend. I asked so many questions and my doctor always taught me about medicine during my visits. After each visit, he would take me into his office to get a sticker and I was always in awe of his wall of diplomas and awards. I remember asking him about each one and he showed me his medical school diploma and told me that I can have one too and become a pediatrician just like him.

When I got to Harvard for college, there were so many opportunities in a variety of fields. During my freshman year, I questioned whether or not I truly wanted to go down the medical school path. My friends were getting really cool internships for fun companies like Google and Facebook and my older friends were getting job offers in exciting and lucrative industries. This was all very enticing, but after going on my first global health trip to help Haitians in rural Dominican communities, I rededicated myself to medicine. It was then that I realized my true calling to become a doctor.
Above: Trisha Theres in Los Angeles.

Kreyolicious: What’s next for you?
Trisha Therese: To be completely honest, I’m not really sure. I know what I want to do but I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to do it yet. When I first started medical school, I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my former professor Dr. Paul Farmer and focus on infectious disease in urban and global settings. However, upon arriving to medical school, I have been exposed to a new realm of health care that involves tech, innovation, and digital health. At the end of the day, I am most passionate about serving underserved communities in the U.S. in Haiti. My goal is to make healthcare more accessible, more affordable, and more efficient for this group of people.

I’m at point where I’m realizing all of my interests (tech, health, preventative medicine, infectious disease, global health, etc) are somewhat related and that it is possible to combine them. I’m not sure what path these interests are leading me towards, but I’m hoping that I can merge them to create innovative solutions for the underserved communities I’m passionate about serving. Until I figure out exactly how I want to do that, I’ll be completing my last couple of years of medical school. If you want to keep up with me and my whereabouts, feel free to follow my journey on my blog Three Thousand Miles (www.threethousandmilesblog.com) or on my instagram @threethousandmiles where I share my experiences in medical school and my adventures in Los Angeles.

There you have it folks…the story of how one Haitian-American used her skills to give back to her parents’ homeland.

[Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy of Trisha Therese]

This concludes PART II of the interview with Trisha Therese! CLICK HERE if you missed the first part!

And be sure to…

CLICK HERE to visit blog and website!

CLICK HERE to follow her on Instagram.

Are you a Haitian-American eager to find a way to help those in Haiti? Trisha Therese, a New Yorker born of Haitian parents, who’s currently living in the Los Angeles area, counted herself among those who wanted to find a way to apply her skills to serving the island’s population. Let’s find out how this medical student took action and fulfilled her quest of giving back to Haiti.

Kreyolicious: Tell us about your memories of growing up Haitian-American.
Trisha Therese: I grew up in the suburbs of NYC. There were a lot of Haitian people in the surrounding communities and I definitely took for granted the plethora of Haitian restaurants and bakeries within driving distance (I’m especially missing this since I moved to Los Angeles where there are none to be found). Growing up, I had a regular life as an American kid living in the suburbs, but my parents made sure that I was well connected to Haitian culture, and that I had Haitian pride.

My mom really put an emphasis on learning languages and how to make traditional foods. As a kid, she made sure to get me children’s books in French and English so I could practice both languages. She also bought computer software for me to practice French grammar and learn French at home. I was also exposed to a lot of Haitian Creole and unlike some parents, she really encouraged me to learn and speak it. I know some parents who worry that raising their children in a multilingual home makes it harder for them in school or they worry that their kids will have an accent. But my mom saw it as an asset that I could speak three languages and I’m so glad she did. It’s nice being fluent in French, Creole, and English, and the fact that I can read, write, and speak in Creole has been an asset to my work in Haiti. When it comes to cooking, I will admit that I didn’t take my mom very seriously when she was trying to teach me as a child. I am genuinely regretting it now that I live across the country from her and I can’t make my favorite Haitian dishes on my own. But you best believe that every time I come home during school breaks, I make sure to have her teach me at least one new recipe!

Growing up, my parents were always involved in the Haitian community. My dad was especially active (and still is today), so it makes sense that I’ve started to follow in his footsteps by taking on leadership roles in organizations and causes dedicated to helping Haitian people.
Above: Trisha Therese during one of her trips to Haiti.

Kreyolicious: You were part of a Haiti project?
Trisha Therese: Yes, I was part of a few. During my time at Harvard, I worked with different Boston-based organizations that focused on improving healthcare and medical education in Haiti. One of the projects was to perform a census of Haitian families living in the mountains on the Haiti-Dominican Republic border. Before this project, it was unknown how many families were living in the mountains. We used GPS trackers to map the coordinates of the homes that we found in the mountains and collected data on their needs, health, and access to food and water. I was the only one who came on the trip that could speak Creole, so I did almost all of the speaking and translating for the group. I’ll never forget when one of the kids realized I was speaking Creole and not French. He ran and got his mother and she gave me a hug. She couldn’t believe that I was born in [the United States of] America, learned to read, write, and speak Creole, and came to her remote community to help. She explained to me how missionaries came every so often to her area, to bring food, water, and medical supplies, but they never spoke Creole and usually only spoke French or Spanish. She said that she has never seen a Haitian or a Haitian-American come to her community and that I gave her hope. That experience was really humbling and I realized that my Creole skills should not go to waste. Since then, I’ve returned to Haiti a few times and have been dedicated to helping Haiti in any way I can.

I ended up returning to Haiti during my time in undergrad to work with another organization on a new medical education curriculum for medical students in Haiti. I spent a year helping to develop this course for Haitian medical students. American medical students were invited as well and they flew to Haiti to participate. We created a summer course that focused on the social determinants of health and how social and environmental factors are major contributors to disease, especially amongst poor and vulnerable populations.

After entering medical school, I sought opportunities to continue work in Haiti. It was hard at first since my school is in Los Angeles where there is a very small Haitian population. Thankfully I found a research mentor who was planning on doing a research project in Port-au-Prince. Thanks to generous sponsorship by my school’s global health program and guidance from my mentor, I traveled solo to Port-au-Prince to lay the foundations for a study we were working on. The study took place at GHESKIO, which is a leading center for the study and treatment of HIV and AIDS in Haiti. During this time, I spent the summer living in Port-au-Prince and working at GHESKIO where I worked alongside the nurses and doctors in the maternal HIV clinic. I also got to spend time at GHESKIO’s laboratory in Tabarre.

[Photo Credit: Trisha Therese/Three Thousand Miles Blog]

This concludes PART I of the interview with Trisha Therese! Watch out for PART I, which will give us more insight on this Haitian-American’s remarkable background journey.

Meanwhile…

CLICK HERE to visit her blog and website!

CLICK HERE to follow her on Instagram.