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Ben Leong

Entry 10: Personal growth sought and found in summer experience
Entry 9: Cheese steaks and history lessons in Philadelphia
Entry 8: Contributing to the president’s health commission
Entry 7: Meeting the nation's top doctor
Entry 6: Reverence and service at a national shrine
Entry 5: Learning a little health goes a long way
Entry 4: Lights and sounds of the nation’s best fireworks display
Entry 3: On Capital Hill, security alerts par for course
Entry 2: Greeted with real responsibility
Entry 1: Transforming classes into a career in capital

Personal growth sought and found in summer experience
Washington, D.C., Sept. 2, 2005

They say that most learning takes place outside of the classroom. After an action-packed roller coaster ride through the East Coast this past summer, I would have to agree with such a statement 110 percent -- NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.

Living in our nation’s capital for the last nine weeks has been a humbling experience. From touring the U.S. Capitol to staring at the original copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution up close at the National Archives, I have enjoyed a history lesson that no U.S. history class can rival. This made visiting our nation’s first capital of Philadelphia, where the Constitution was signed, even more breathtaking. Being able to sit in the same room where our forefathers debated the Bill of Rights and standing in the chambers where the first Supreme Court cases were argued was a history lesson I will never forget. Afterwards, we went to look at the Liberty Bell which stands as our nation’s symbol of freedom and liberty. It was humbling to walk on the same streets that Ben Franklin and John Hancock did nearly 230 years ago.

Through these last 10 weeks, I have been able to see how D.C. works first-hand both politically and socially. From work to the weekend trips, from the happy-hour outings to all the people I met from UCI and other campuses, I have enjoyed events that will become lifelong memories and met people who will become lifelong friends. To think that I almost spent this summer attending summer school instead is a bit scary now, but at least I know that is simply what could have been, and my D.C. experience is what really has been.

I have started to see that in Washington, D.C., (and likely in the entire working world), it is not so much what you learn in the classroom that matters but rather how you apply those skills to your advantage. I know that everybody in any authority position always sticks to that statement, but no one can truly find out for themselves how true that statement is until they actually experience it. I must say that public speaking, writing and networking are the three most important qualities a person can have no matter the profession. Once again, you need to go outside of your known boundaries to develop and learn. From that, I encourage all those who have read my journal this summer or will read it in the future to truly consider a trip of growth and excitement that goes beyond the college campus. Would you honestly rather study for midterms and finals, something you get to do plenty of during the school year, or visit New York and Philadelphia and play baseball at the foot of the Washington Monument (of course, only when you are not working)? I am not saying that I know everything, and I clearly do not, but I must say that I will be coming back to UCI as a better, more well-rounded person, and that’s something summer school cannot provide in the same way. I would truly prefer to take an additional quarter of classes to make up for any lost summer school than relinquish my D.C. experience. I would like to thank the UCI Career Center for offering this awesome summer opportunity and Today@UCI for letting me share my thoughts. And thank you all for reading.

Because of the exhilaration I felt here and the love I acquired for Washington, D.C., this summer, to quote our governor, “I’ll be back.“

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Cheese steaks and history lessons in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 21, 2005

All those so-called Philly cheese steak places back home in California will no longer get my business. I finally learned what a true Philly cheese steak looked and tasted like during my weekend trip to Philadelphia. For only about $4.50, you get a humongous, 12-inch sub packed with cheese and seasoned, shredded steak that melts in your mouth. By far, it was one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. And I had thought Philly cheese steaks were simply tiny sandwiches with minimal meat and lettuce and tomato!

All right, now that I am done advertising the authentic Philly cheese steaks of Philadelphia, (but seriously, they were really good sandwiches), here is what else I did in Philadelphia.

Living in our nation’s capital for the last nine weeks has been a humbling experience. From touring the U.S. Capitol to staring at the original copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution up close at the National Archives, I have enjoyed a history lesson that no U.S. history class can rival. This made visiting our nation’s first capital of Philadelphia, where the Constitution was signed, even more breathtaking. Being able to sit in the same room where our forefathers debated the Bill of Rights and standing in the chambers where the first Supreme Court cases were argued was a history lesson I will never forget. Afterwards, we went to look at the Liberty Bell which stands as our nation’s symbol of freedom and liberty. It was humbling to walk on the same streets that Ben Franklin and John Hancock did nearly 230 years ago.

I remember that some in California had warned me about how rude people on the East Coast might be, especially those frustrated at lost tourists. I was afraid I would encounter one of those moments while we were trying to get around on subway in Philadelphia. We anxiously asked for directions and the conductor at the station completely understood our situation. She graciously came out of our booth and walked through the map with us several times until we understood. She then even wrote down directions for us on a scratch piece of paper and wished us luck. We were so thankful that she helped us … never assume stereotypes are true.

Philadelphia was really awesome, and those cheese steaks are already calling my name to come back.

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Contributing to the president’s health commission
Washington, D.C., Aug. 17, 2005

Completing large projects with a success usually brings a sense of relief. Though a bit tired and worn out, that is exactly what my supervisor Betty and myself felt after we completed our meeting with the White House last week. We have been working all summer to prepare to meet with Dr. Akshay Desai, the chair of the health committee for the White House Initiative on Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Affairs. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, my supervisor acts as the Health and Human Services representative to the White House on AAPI affairs. Therefore, this meeting required us to tap virtually every resource within HHS (and believe me, if you count all the agencies and offices within HHS, you’ll have acronyms and agencies coming out of your ears!).

Preparing for this meeting required several conference calls, workgroup meetings and many e-mails to determine the primary topics of focus for AAPI health in the coming years. Since my supervisor and I had the task of coordinating this meeting, we had to keep all the other HHS agencies and offices in check, chasing after them to submit their presentations and edit their submissions as necessary. With deadline after deadline leading up to the meeting, I worked several nine-plus-hour days. This was my first exposure to deadlines in the real world. Sure, as a college student I’ve faced deadlines for papers and exams, but missing those deadlines does not affect national policy or the president’s agenda for health care.

Dr. Desai interacted very well with our HHS presentations, and he told us that he had learned a lot that he could communicate to the president. Dr. Desai will coordinate the health portion of the AAPI commission’s report to the president, and it is nice to know that my work will contribute directly to that report. What a leap! This summer, I directly contributed to one of President Bush’s commissions. Once again, the breadth of knowledge and the experiences I am enjoying this summer go beyond anything I ever expected.

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Meeting the nation's top doctor
Washington, D.C., Aug. 4, 2005

On Monday, along with only five other interns, I met Dr. Richard Carmona, the U.S. surgeon general, who symbolically serves as the nation’s doctor. Yes, he is the one who issues those warnings we see on tobacco and alcohol ads that warn us of the health risks of consuming those products. However, Dr. Carmona is much more than that to me; I consider him a role model and my dream is to someday become surgeon general myself.

This opportunity was essentially a “thank you” the Office of Minority Health offered its summer interns. Our office’s senior adviser had asked me who I would most like to meet, and Dr. Carmona was one name I mentioned. A few calls were made, and the meeting was arranged. Although we were told that Dr. Carmona could only spend about 30 minutes with us, he ended up talking and taking pictures with us for nearly an hour and a half.

Dr. Carmona shared how his personal experiences affected his work. He told stories from his childhood in Harlem, where both of his parents suffered from excessive substance abuse and left him homeless at the age of 6. Ultimately, he said that he gained his understanding of public health disparities from personal experience rather than reading them from a textbook or learning about them in a classroom. As surgeon general, he takes his childhood experiences to heart and says it was his journey from the streets of Harlem that continues to drive him today.

Dr. Carmona talked about how he makes his decisions apolitically, founded on the principles of science and public health. He explained that the surgeon general’s work and views should never change according to the polls nor shift with the political wind. I wish more of our politicians shared his attitude – he clearly works for the American people every day, whereas many politicians hold their re-election bids in highest priority.

When I mentioned that I would be a senior at UC Irvine in the fall, Dr. Carmona spoke fondly of our school. He said he attended medical school with our new chancellor, Dr. Michael Drake, and that he had worked with our executive vice chancellor, Michael Gottfredson, at the University of Arizona.

I remember that when preparing for my trip during spring quarter, our student coordinators told us that we had a good chance of seeing some “big-name” figures in D.C. It was true, I’ve seen some senators and U.S. representatives, and even the secretary of labor. However, I never thought I would actually have the opportunity to enjoy a long conversation with the U.S. surgeon general. It was a memorable experience.

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Reverence and service at a national shrine
Washington, D.C., July 28, 2005

We were awed by the magnificent architecture with the domes, the flying buttresses and the holy relics when we visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, America’s largest Catholic church. As my friend, UCI student Jason Amanse, and I found a couple of seats in the pews and got ready for Mass, a seminarian approached us, asking if we wanted to act as altar servers for the noon Mass, which was to start in 10 minutes. A wave of shock came over both of us as we comprehended the question. We were being asked to literally serve as direct assistants during the weekend’s most popular Mass at the largest Catholic church in the U.S.! Luckily, both Jason and I had had some altar-server experience in the past; we would now have the opportunity to put that experience and training to use in a much larger venue.

Setting aside our excitement and awe, we followed the seminarian to the back room where we dressed in extravagant black and white robes. Suddenly the pipe organs started to bellow, and we were told to stand in line for the procession. Jason and I received the honor of carrying the candles, which in the Catholic Church represent the light of Jesus Christ. During the procession, we saw people from all over the country – and possibly the world – as they snapped photos of what’s likely one of the grandest processions in the nation. (And, still to our shock, we were part of that procession!). We processed to the altar where we took our seats and helped out when asked. We received Holy Communion on the altar, and took part in several ceremonies that we had experienced at our home churches but that now we were part of literally on a national stage. Afterwards, all the seminarians told us that we had done an excellent job and asked us to come back for each subsequent Sunday that we’re going to be in Washington, D.C., to act as altar servers.

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Learning a little health goes a long way
Washington, D.C., July 20, 2005

My internship at the Office of Minority Health has transcended my expectations. I never imagined that I would be entrusted with some of the responsibilities that I have been so far. I currently have three primary projects, with several other little projects on the side. The first is acting as a liaison for the White House Asian American Pacific Islander workgroup. My direct supervisor, the Health and Human Services representative to the White House for AAPI affairs, has made me the primary point person to coordinate meetings and discussions on AAPI issues for the rest of HHS. Secondly, I sit on the planning committee to prepare for the 20th anniversary celebration and awards presentation for the Office of Minority Health. I have a range of responsibilities including writing up award criteria that will be sent out to every part of the U.S., contacting celebrities and politicians to participate as speakers and presenters, and trying to find cultural entertainment. Thirdly, the deputy director and senior adviser to the director in the Office of Minority Health have assigned me to coordinate a diabetes outreach project. In this process, I will be working with outside organizations, as well as receiving the opportunity to co-author a journal article about diabetes in minorities.

Beyond all my tasks here at the Office of Minority Health, I have also gained some deep insight to the inner-workings of health policy in the U.S. Each year the federal government spends so much time and energy researching, writing and trying to establish policy that will make the U.S. a better place to live. Despite the health policy efforts made over the years, disparities among minorities persist; the rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes keep getting worse. I have seen that HHS can only do so much in terms of releasing information about how to treat and prevent health disparities. I feel that our society needs to take more personal responsibility for our own health. Especially as college kids we feel invincible, thinking consistent intake of fast food and sweets will never come back to hurt us. It is this attitude we develop when we are young that, in adulthood, yields the insurmountable rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes – diseases that are preventable but continue to plague the U.S. Costs for these diseases – for medical care and lost productivity – soar into the hundreds of billions of dollars every year.

We watch on the news and wonder how to solve the health crisis in this country like social insurance used for health care: Social Security and Medicare. Instead of being frustrated with the media and our politicians, we need to know that we all personally have the power of reforming the health care system if we simply did more to maintain our own good health. If we had healthier lifestyles, we would not need to spend so much federal money on health care and we would live longer, better-quality lives.

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Lights and sounds of the nation’s best fireworks display
Washington, D.C., July 4, 2005

As our UC Irvine contingent gathered at the base of the Washington Monument on July 4, ready to experience the magical fire in the sky, we thought to ourselves, “Where better to celebrate the nation’s birthday than in Washington, D.C.?”

With the National Symphony and the Navy Band playing nearby, “America the Beautiful” and “Yankee Doodle” welcomed up the first few bursts of color. The fireworks shows that I had been to in the past had managed only to shoot one firework into the sky at a time. But in this fireworks display, five or six erupted at once, representing all the colors of the rainbow as patriotic songs bellowed into the Washington night.

Always afraid the display was about to end (the entire show looked like any other’s grand finale), I savored every moment in awe. For 20 minutes, we forgot about our own personal and societal problems, and just appreciated the fact that we were Americans. The music and lights made us feel pride in our country, empathy for all those who fought and are currently fighting to ensure that we have many more Independence Days, and joy that we were seeing the best fireworks show in the country. With the Lincoln Memorial before us and the Washington Monument behind us, this fireworks show linked our past with our present with our future. The D.C. fireworks show was truly the best 4th of July experience I’ve ever had.

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On Capital Hill, security alerts par for course
Washington, D.C., June 30, 2005

I was extremely hungry after work. So I was happy to see buckets of Chinese food as I walked into this meeting for an Asian American policy group that organizes gatherings for Asian American interns from all around the country. Just as I was piling my plate full of rice, savory pork and some cold noodles, I hear a beeeeeeeep – beeeeeeeeeeep – beeeeeeeeeeeep overhead. At first I didn’t really care since I was finally getting to eat, but everybody else started to clear out. Rather than be left alone, I grabbed my plate and ran out with the crowd. It was Thursday evening, June 29, and the Capitol was being evacuated.

In California, we have been fortunate only to hear about the national security alerts that occur quite frequently on the East Coast. Well, as I was following everybody out of the Longworth Building at the U.S. Capitol, it quickly became clear that we were in the midst of a national security alert. Congress, staff members and visitors like me were evacuated all at once. Is it a bomb? Is something going to explode? Though these thoughts crossed my mind, I was actually too excited to be afraid. I, along with my friends from the now-disbanded meeting, were forced to cross the street, and see the Capitol building barred off while police ran everywhere. In the chaos, I saw congresswoman Grace Napolitano [D-Calif.] and somebody who looked a lot like Senator Orin Hatch from Utah. (Perhaps it really was him?) But seeing these prominent politicians around us only made me more excited. It turns out that a small private plane had entered restricted airspace and two Air Force pilots had to escort it out of the no-fly zone. Only in Washington, D.C., can a small plane cause so much chaos!

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Greeted with real responsibility
Washington, D.C., June 22, 2005

In the few days since arriving here, I’ve had a fabulous time at my internship at the Office of Minority Health (OMH). I was really afraid that this internship would mirror some of my past internship experiences – that I would sit at a desk and play computer games because the intern coordinator would treat me like an ignorant college student not trustworthy enough for any of the “important” work. Well, this internship is the exact opposite. It seems that they trust us with a lot of the work that drives the agency (maybe that’s why the application process was really grueling and competitive). In just three days, I’ve participated in a White House conference call, been invited to co-author a paper with the director of the office (who is also one of President Bush’s deputy secretaries for health), attended a meeting with the American Diabetes Association, and been assigned to help plan the OMH 20th anniversary celebration.

My only complaint about Southern California in the three years I’ve been going to school at UCI was the traffic. With that comment, I would like to introduce the congestion-free Metro subway system here in the Washington, D.C., area. The trains are frequent, clean, fast, take you where you need to go, and never run into traffic. This really makes me wish that we had a subway or public transportation system this efficient in the L.A. area. Additionally, since I live in D.C. and work in the suburbs of Rockville, Md., I always take the counter-commute which makes the morning Metro even less congested.

People always told me to beware of the summer weather in D.C. since it was going to crawl with humidity and heat. I heard stories that you start sweating right after you get out of the shower. Well, let me tell you, we California students must have brought the good weather with us. It has been a very comfortable 75- to 80-degree temperature with very low humidity and a breeze. Wow, great weather with no traffic…what more could you ask for? But of course, now that I am saying this, I am going to jinx the weather, and the humidity will come out from its hiding tomorrow.

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Transforming classes into a career in capital
Irvine, Calif., June 12, 2005

Having had tension-filled months of chemistry last summer, I decided I wanted to try something different this year. So, I applied and was accepted into the UCDC summer internship program. Beyond my desire to avoid summer school, I looked to Washington, D.C., as the perfect place to explore my career interests. I’m studying to be a physician while also majoring in economics because I want to pursue a career in health policy. With the many government offices, think tanks and lobbyist groups that have health policy concentrations, I look forward to learning more about this field. While in D.C., I’ll be interning at the Office of Minority Health (OMH) which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Although I consider myself mostly a Western U.S. kid, I was actually born right outside of Washington, D.C., in Rockville, Md., which is where the Office of Minority Health is located. Although I spent the first two years of my life in Rockville, I really don’t remember anything from my toddler days so I look forward to seeing and experiencing our nation’s capital in the next couple months. My parents claim that the fireworks in D.C. on the 4th of July scared the wits out of me when I was one year old, so this July, I hope to prove I’ve conquered that fear.

I would also like to visit the other major cities on the east coast (e.g., New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore). Because I’m a baseball nut, I plan to visit as many major league baseball stadiums on the east coast as possible. I hope you all enjoy this journal as I take you along with me through this summer journey. Thank you for reading!

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