Kyla T. Duong is the oldest of her 14 cousins, but she was just a child when she started serving as her family’s health care translator. When her grandfather was hospitalized with advanced kidney disease, she looked up medical terminology in Vietnamese to explain the doctor’s recommendations.

“As time went on and he passed away, I realized he would’ve had better care had he spoken the language. A lot of people are not given the opportunity for better care because they can’t say they need it,” Duong says. “He’s one of my largest inspirations.”

After Duong graduates from UC Irvine with a double major in political science and public health and two minors in sociology and medical anthropology, she plans to use her degree to help bridge barriers for marginalized communities. She has been selected to speak at the School of Social Sciences’ commencement on June 13, 2025.

As Duong prepares her cap and gown, she reflects on her large, tight-knit family of Vietnamese immigrants – many of whom didn’t have the opportunity to pursue college, but whose wisdom and perseverance inspired her academic journey.

True passion

Duong transferred to UCI from Orange Coast College. She had started enrolling in community college classes that piqued her interest while she was still in high school because when the COVID-19 pandemic hit – despite classes, her role as ASB class president, and a part-time job – she felt bored.

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started,” she says. Figuring out how to register for college courses was the hardest part. Once she got through that, she was officially dual enrolled in high school and community college and on her way to earning her associate’s degree. Transferring to UCI then became the logical choice – she could still live at home with family, plus she already knew the campus and the surrounding hang outs from her many neighborhood friends who were Anteaters.

Once at UCI, Duong discovered that she needed to chart her own course. She started out pre-med and added the political science major, pursuing her interest in leadership and public service. But it still wasn’t quite right. She soon switched to public health, keeping political science, and started taking more classes in sociology and medical anthropology to better understand advocacy, social movements, and how culture shapes medical practices.

“When you’re from a traditional Asian family, there are a lot of people who think you should be an engineer or doctor,” she says. “But pursuing a degree in social sciences was truly a passion.”

Duong was also passionate about applying what she learned in the classroom in the community. She joined the Vietnamese Student Association, known as VSA, and Pi Beta Phi sorority. She also interned with UCI CARE, which supports students who have been affected by domestic abuse or sexual assault. In that role, she helped organize speakers and outreach projects, and conducted research on topics including intimate partner violence in the Asian American Pacific Islander communities, and the role Title IX plays in students’ decisions to report abuse.

“Helping the public better understand policies through UCI CARE, and seeing how my education has helped to further my life goals, has really inspired me,” Duong says. “Through our work, I can see the power of advocacy, power of patient care, power of knowledge – and how we can show different communities the social issues that exist and affect them.”

Seeds of success

Duong worked off-campus, as well: as a barista in a Vietnamese coffee shop, a tutor, and an operations manager. But her role the last two years as a legal assistant has made the biggest impact on her, solidifying her desire for social advocacy and reform. Before she started working at the Law Offices of Adam V. Nguyen, she had never met a Vietnamese lawyer – much less a female Vietnamese attorney.

In this job, she saw language barriers harming people in the legal system in similar ways to how she saw it hindering her family’s health care experience. Exact translations in legal cases can cause confusion and serious problems, and victims sometimes avoid seeking legal help at all if they don't speak English.

“This job shaped me culturally and socially into who I am today,” says Duong. She expects to take graduate school entrance exams later this year and apply to programs that will allow her to combine her interest in health care, law and social justice.

As Duong wrote her commencement speech, she thought about the Vietnamese proverb, “When eating the fruit, remember who planted the trees.” She feels both grateful to the older generation, like her mom who lost her entire family in the war in Vietnam, and also motivated to continue pursuing her path for her younger cousins who look up to her.

“Growing up seeing the impact of war – of people given a second chance at life, but often not a good life – brought me to who I am,” Duong says. “And now, at one of the most pivotal parts of my life, I can see that I am where I am today because of my heritage and what these strong Vietnamese men and women invested in me.”

-Christine Byrd for UCI Social Sciences
-photo by Luis Fonseca, UCI Social Sciences