MyLinh Tran

It was the death of MyLinh Tran’s father that inspired her to seek a career in medical research. Her father died from stomach cancer when MyLinh was a kindergartener in Vietnam.

“I’ll never forget his face and his pain. My dad died because of bad technology and poor medication.  That makes me want to do something to help others so they do not have to experience the same thing.”

MyLinh and her mother and brother moved to California to join the rest of their family in 2004.  MyLinh had originally planned to attend a different San Diego community college but immediately changed her mind the first time she visited MiraCosta.

“I just loved the view,” she explains. “Plus, I heard MiraCosta requires students to be really good at English and I wanted to challenge myself. In all, I had a really good feeling about the school.”

MyLinh worked hard at her English skills and also learned a “third language,” that of biology. 

“In Vietnam I felt that the study of biology didn’t go into as much detail as it does here.  So, I have learned a lot of detail and with that detail a whole new set of vocabulary rules.”

MyLinh has learned well.  She is one of only a handful of MiraCosta students selected as 2008 Medal of Honor recipients, the highest honor a student can achieve. She will transfer to UCSD in fall 2008 and study pharmaceutical chemistry.  She ultimately hopes to earn a graduate degree in pharmacology and plans to work either in a hospital or in a pharmaceutical company.