Whether it be stitching open a frog, monitoring blood pressure results or switching between Cantonese and English, senior Canise Lee walks into every event with the same purpose: To immerse more students into the medical field by offering opportunities and taking part in events. Her main goal is to spread awareness about the Garfield Health center to others, a non-profit that provides free health care for those in need.
Lee is the president of the Youth Ambassador program and founder of the Walnut Garfield Health Center (GHC) Youth Coalition club. Walnut GHC Youth Coalition is a club for Walnut High School students to explore medical opportunities and play side games such as stitching. She assists with event planning and the logistics for students in these programs, providing opportunities for engagement in medical activities.
“There are a lot of people in this community who may need help. They just don’t know where to go. By introducing [GHC] to the vicinity, we are able to bring more awareness to free health care. Also I just feel like there’s not a lot of medical opportunities around here for high school students. So bringing something that can be close to home can also be helpful too,” Lee said.
Along with increasing public awareness and medical opportunities, Lee takes part in planning events that the community and members can enjoy and learn from. When planning new events, Lee focuses on inviting mentors and community-professionals as guest speakers. She does this to help open her members’ minds about the different perspectives about the medical field and build communication skills. One way she did this was by reaching out to professionals and helping bridge the gap between medical professionals and students by hosting an event for students to learn about the lives and daily work in the medical industry. This event was aimed towards ambassadors who are new members joining the Youth Ambassador Program to learn more about the medical field and spread the word of GHC.
“My favorite memory was when we had an ambassador orientation for the new ambassadors, and I, as president of the Youth Ambassador Program, was hosting it. It was really fun to play interactive games, so that ambassadors are comfortable with each other, as well as getting to meet the new people who are joining the program,” Lee said.
However, Lee is not alone in her decisions and the work she does. Senior Bonny Li helps Lee in managing and running responsibilities for the Walnut GHC Youth Coalition club as vice president. Through their interactions and operations, Li not only plays a pivotal role in event planning towards the members, but also observes the actions and work ethic of her fellow leaders.
“[Canise] is great to work with because she is work-efficient at doing this alone and can combine both communities and bring them to our club and she gives them insight on how important good communication and feedback is,” Li said.
The reach of Lee’s leadership is not noticed only by her fellow leaders. GHC Youth Ambassador and Walnut GHC Youth coalition club member, sophomore Danika Pe is an example of the reach of Canise’s leadership skills.
“[She] opened up a lot of volunteer opportunities to make sure students can explore more about GHC. [She] makes a really good leader and she is just so easy to work with as she makes sure we’re comfortable when learning,” Pe said.
