Taking your talents overseas is a big deal. For Justin, it was a necessary experience to learn what it means to be a compassionate leader. The psychology major is using his passion to help others to prepare for a future career in medicine and his on-campus involvement in Global Brigades is helping him to achieve that. For Vu, it’s about being able to serve the world’s most vulnerable populations and to be a part of something larger than himself. That type of dedication is why he turned from being a participant in Global Brigades, to now serving as president. In this role, he’s done everything from logistics and communications planning, to leading a group of volunteers. He attributes his success as president to his time as a Supplemental Instructor and his future is looking bright.

Justin, in his own words

On his proudest achievement. “My proudest achievement on campus has been being a part of Global Brigades. Global Brigades is a nonprofit organization that helps provide healthcare to underserved areas in Central America. My role as president has been preparing other volunteers who would come along on the Brigade with us. We'll have monthly meetings where we talked about how to prepare for the Brigade and also about the different healthcare situations that are going on in Central America. Global Brigades shaped me into a leader because it put me in a role where I had to interact and collaborate with people from the university, different students and faculty as well as people over in Honduras.”

On how UM-Dearborn helped support his dream. “My experience at UM-Dearborn has helped support my future career in medicine because I've been exposed to a lot of different people in a lot of different cultures. I've been able to interact with everybody on campus. Also, it has given me the opportunity to step into leadership roles that I would have never been able to if I were to go to a different school. I'm actually part of the SI program — Supplemental Instruction — and it wouldn't normally be something that I would be comfortable with. But being here on campus and just seeing people that I knew who are were also Supplemental Instructors, encouraged me to go and apply for the job.” 

On his mission to do good. “Throughout my whole life I've always wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and it's something I aim to do in everything and in all areas of my life. I think it's important to give back to the organizations and to the people that helped foster and bring you up and so that's why I feel inclined to be so involved on campus. Programs like Supplemental Instruction, Global Brigades — at one point I was just a part of them and then I felt inclined to want to give back, so I became more involved.”