Week 6 Lily Trang A04

The article, On Some College Campuses, A Focus on Asian American Mental Health, by Katherine Kam, especially grabbed my attention because mental health is so important for an individual to be sane in life. I completely understand the mindset of Asian parents coming from their home countries to push their children to pursue law or medicine. I can most definitely personally can relate to this article, both of my parents came to the United States in regards to a better future for myself. They don't want me to worry about if I will have money to pay rent, or to buy myself something nice. I do agree with this article, we need to raise awareness that Asian Americans do have a higher possibility of becoming depressed. Katherine discusses the statistics that "recent family problems (47%), recent academic problems (43%), and recent financial problems (24%)." were the majority of the reasons Asian Americans have committed suicide in college. Due to the pressure, I can personally count off how many of my friends have entered as pre-med towards Med School to become a doctor just based on fulfilling their parents wishes. It is hard to fit your own desires when your parents have literally sacrificed everything to be where they are today. Personally, I have also felt the pressure of letting my parents down. That can dramatically hurt your mental health. Although my parents would love me attend Med School and be a doctor, they understand I have to do something I love. I think it is so extremely hard because people think Asians have it easy in that they are just "naturally" smart. That's not the case all the time and a lot of students tear themselves down for this very reason.
 

Question: What can we do especially at UC Davis to cause awareness to Asian Americans? What can we do to push them to go to counseling offices and seek help?

Kam, Katherine (2013). On Some College Campuses, A Focus on Asian American Mental Health. New American Media. Retrieved from https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/299229/files/folder/Week%20of%20Readings/Week6?preview=4936665