What's your story?

My name is Mya Doan, and I am a Psychology student on the Pre-Med track at Boston University with the goal of becoming a psychiatrist. My interest in mental health comes from both personal experience and academic passion. Growing up, I often saw mental health misunderstood, minimized, or not discussed at all, which made me more aware of how harmful silence can be - especially for young people trying to make sense of emotions without support or language for what they are experiencing.

I've always been the kind of friend that people turn to. I value listening and creating a space where others feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings. This natural ability to empathize has helped me understand people better - their emotions, behaviors, identities, and the environments that shape them. Over time, that empathy has evolved into a commitment to advocacy. I want to help create a future where mental health is treated with the same seriousness and compassion as physical health, especially for young people in immigrant and Asian communities who are often expected to simply endure.

Why does Asian mental health matter to you?

Asian mental health matters to me because so many forms of emotional pain are normalized in our communities. Stress, silence, pressure, comparative suffering, and the expectation to keep going no matter what are often treated as ordinary parts of life rather than signs that someone may need support. Many AANHPI youth, especially second-generation and third-culture youth, grow up balancing cultural expectations, achievement pressure, family obligation, and identity conflict without having spaces to openly process what that feels like.

This issue is personal to me because I relate deeply to many of those stressors. The topics of second-generation and third-culture kid stress especially stood out to me throughout my work because they captured the feeling of being caught between worlds - trying to understand yourself while also meeting expectations from family, culture, and society. Asian mental health matters because our communities deserve language for these experiences, culturally responsive care, and spaces where healing is not treated as weakness. We deserve the chance to thrive, not just survive.

Tell us about your role and project(s) with Thriving Asians!

Through Thriving Asians, I worked on projects centered on cultural mental health education, youth advocacy, and data storytelling. One of my main projects involved developing one-pagers on AANHPI mental health stressors. These covered topics such as chronic stress, stigma, generational silence, immigration stress, intergenerational trauma, pressure to succeed, adultification, and second-generation and third-culture identity stress. The purpose of these one-pagers was to make research-based mental health concepts more accessible, relatable, and culturally grounded for AANHPI youth and community audiences.

I also worked on a data storytelling and stakeholder presentation project focused on the impact of Thriving Asians programming, especially the Youth Mental Health Leadership Programs. For this project, I reviewed impact data, identified key participant outcomes, and created a narrative showing how Thriving Asians supports AANHPI youth through culturally responsive mental health education, leadership development, mentorship, and community-building. The goal was to communicate not just what the program does, but why continued support and funding matter for AANHPI students and the broader community.

One part of the experience I especially valued was the collaborative brainstorming process. I enjoyed the creative side of shaping ideas, organizing narratives, and thinking about how to present information in a way that was both meaningful and accessible. This work helped me see how research, storytelling, and advocacy can come together to create tools that are useful not only within academic spaces, but also in real community settings.

What were some of your favorite memories or impactful moments ?

Some of the most impactful moments came from working on topics that felt deeply relatable, especially the sections on second-generation and third-culture kid stress. There was something really powerful about putting language to experiences that so many AANHPI youth feel but may not always know how to name. I kept thinking about how meaningful it could be for someone to read those one-pagers and feel understood.

I also really enjoyed the collaborative brainstorming and creative process. It was exciting to build ideas with others, think through how to organize research into a stronger message, and find ways to make complex content more engaging and accessible. Another meaningful part of the experience was being able to connect with high-achieving professionals and mentors through collaborations and career development spaces. It helped normalize the idea that successful people also have doubts, emotions, and struggles, and that there are people who genuinely care and want to support you.

What are you most proud of from this experience?

I am most proud of helping create resources that felt both research-based and emotionally real. I wanted the one-pagers and presentations to do more than just share information - I wanted them to reflect the lived realities behind the research, especially the feelings of pressure, shame, silence, and identity conflict that many AANHPI youth experience. I am proud that the work tried to validate those experiences while also framing them in a way that could educate others.

I am also proud of how much I grew in my ability to translate research into something usable. This experience pushed me to think about how to make information clearer, more concise, and more accessible without losing depth. That is a skill I know will continue to matter to me in advocacy, research, and healthcare.

What did you learn from the program that was most helpful for implementing your project?

One of the most helpful things I learned was how to work with research more effectively. I became better at paraphrasing, using sources responsibly, building my own claims from evidence, and presenting research in a way that felt coherent and compelling. I also learned the importance of shortening work thoughtfully - how to cut down word count while still preserving the main message. That guidance was especially useful because I tend to think deeply and write a lot, so learning how to be concise made my work stronger.

I also learned that research should not stay confined to research hours or academic assignments. This program helped me see how research can be used in many different spaces - community education, advocacy materials, presentations, and leadership development. That lesson was especially meaningful to me because it connects directly to the kind of interdisciplinary, holistic psychiatry approach I hope to pursue in the future.

How did the Youth Mental Health Leadership Programs support you?

This program supported me academically and professionally by giving me real experience in mental health advocacy that combined research, communication, and community engagement. As someone interested in becoming a psychiatrist, I found it especially meaningful to think about research not as something isolated, but as something that can inform a more interdisciplinary and holistic approach to care. This experience helped me think more deeply about how psychology, culture, education, accessibility, and advocacy all intersect.

It also supported my leadership growth by giving me space to explore my own strengths. I learned more about presenting research, designing accessible materials, and contributing to collaborative projects. On a personal level, the program felt empowering. It felt like a real jumping-off point - a space that helped me feel more confident in my interests, more grounded in my goals, and more connected to a community of people who care about this work. I also appreciated opportunities to connect with relatable, high-achieving professionals and postdocs, because it made career development feel more human and attainable.

What have you learned from your family, community, or culture that supports mental health?

From my family, community, and culture, I have learned the values of perseverance, responsibility, and care for others. Those values have taught me how to stay committed, how to show up for people, and how to keep moving forward even when things are difficult. At the same time, this year also helped me reflect on the limits of survival-based thinking.

What supports my mental health now is learning how to hold on to those values while expanding them. I have learned that strength can also mean vulnerability, asking for help, reflecting honestly, and allowing myself to rest. I think one of the most important lessons has been realizing that caring for others should not require abandoning yourself. That balance is something I continue to learn, and it shapes how I think about healing in AANHPI communities.

What does mental health leadership mean to you?

To me, mental health leadership means helping create spaces where people feel safe enough to be honest about what they are carrying. It means naming patterns that have been normalized - like chronic stress, silence, shame, and overwork - and helping others understand that those experiences matter. Leadership in mental health is not about having every answer. It is about listening well, communicating thoughtfully, and using your voice to make conversations more accessible, compassionate, and culturally grounded.

As a young leader, I want to use my voice to help make mental health education feel more relatable and less intimidating, especially for AANHPI youth. I hope to continue using research, storytelling, and advocacy to create tools that help people feel seen and understood. In the future, whether through medicine, research, or community work, I want to contribute to a mentally healthier community by making support feel more culturally responsive, validating, and accessible.

Any closing reflections about your experience?

This experience reminded me that mental health advocacy can be both deeply personal and deeply practical. It is personal because so much of this work connects to real experiences of silence, pressure, and identity conflict. But it is also practical because the way we present research, tell stories, and design resources can directly affect whether people feel reached by the message.

I am grateful that TA gave me space to explore both sides of that. It helped me grow not only in research and communication, but also in confidence and clarity about the kind of work I want to keep doing. Overall, the experience felt empowering and affirming, and I see it as an important jumping-off point for the work I hope to continue in mental health, leadership, and community care.

What's next for you?!

Next, I plan to continue my studies in Psychology on the Pre-Med track at Boston University while continuing to build experience in mental health advocacy, research, and culturally responsive care. I am especially excited that I was provisionally accepted to the study abroad program I applied to in Korea, which is something I have been hoping to pursue for a long time. I chose to apply to this program because I have long been interested in Korean language, culture, and daily life, and I wanted the opportunity to experience those things beyond the classroom through full cultural immersion.

More than simply studying in another country, I am excited by the chance to experience university life from the perspective of a Korean student, step outside of what is familiar, and grow through firsthand cultural experience. As a psychology major, I am especially interested in how culture shapes identity, behavior, communication, and mental health. Studying abroad in Korea would allow me to explore those questions in a more meaningful and personal way while also deepening my understanding of pan-Asian culture (thank you Jess for this idea), academic pressure, and the social environments that influence wellbeing.

I also hope to continue strengthening my research skills and pursuing projects that connect mental health, culture, and equity. More broadly, my research interests center on the ways immigrant background, intergenerational dynamics, and cultural stigma shape mental health outcomes, especially for Asian and other underserved communities. Long term, I hope to attend medical school and become a psychiatrist who provides thoughtful, holistic, and culturally aware care. I see both research and global learning experiences like study abroad as important steps toward becoming a more well-rounded future clinician and advocate.