Nonprofit founder brings passion for service to Iowa
When Katherine Yu, of Toronto, Ontario, was 15 years old, she noticed her stomach was bulging in an unusual way.
She visited her family doctor. An ultrasound found that she had a 14-pound ovarian cyst.
“All the way from my family doctor to the gynecologist to the team at Sick Kids in Toronto, everyone seemed to feel like my health was their personal responsibility,” Yu says. “That was such a profound experience."
The sudden, frightening experience and the comfort of being cared for by a team of experts made Yu decide she wanted to be a physician. She feels it will help her be a more empathetic provider someday.
“To the patient, it’s not just a diagnosis. It’s their life and their entire family’s life that has just been turned over,” she says.
In just three years, she completed her bachelor's degree in biomedical science with honors at the University of Guelph in Ontario. She was awarded the Governor General’s Silver Medal, a national recognition given in Canada to the graduate with the highest academic achievement in the class. Throughout her undergraduate education, she was set on attending medical school in the U.S., but she began to realize that the health care volunteering opportunities—a necessary part of almost any medical school application in the U.S. and beyond—were very difficult to come by.
“One thing about Canada that’s kind of different from the States in terms of the pre-med journey is that there are very few clinical opportunities available to students,” Yu says. “Shadowing and clinical volunteering aren’t really part of the culture here.”
When she was finally able to get a slot as a clinical volunteer with a campus health program, she found it to be such a valuable learning experience that she began to wonder why all Canadian pre-medical students couldn’t have the same opportunity.
“It fully confirmed my desire to go into medicine. Now I understood why all the med schools in the States want you to have shadowing experience before you apply,” she says.
“I knew a lot of my peers were having trouble getting into these clinical experiences, and I wanted to do something about that.”
What started as Yu’s individual effort to convince local clinics to offer volunteer positions soon became a nonprofit organization, Pipeline to Success. The organization now has two university chapters and 13 clinical partners in Ontario. Yu, the organization’s founder and president, plans to continue in an advisory role during medical school.
“I learned a lot about what leadership really is and what it takes to build a team from the ground up,” Yu says. “I think anyone who can try to solve a challenge that they see in the world should do it. It teaches you so much about yourself and gives you a lot of confidence that you can make a difference.”
Yu’s work with Pipeline to Success, volunteering with Guelph’s first response team, academic coaching, and research activities added up to over 60 hours per week. Though the schedule was demanding, Yu says it taught her time-management strategies that will serve her well in medical school.
Yu was drawn to the University of Iowa because, like Guelph, it was in a small city in an otherwise rural area. The people she met here made her feel right at home.
“People were more friendly, more warm,” she says. “Rachel in the admissions office was so helpful in terms of giving advice and being incredibly transparent, even when I was just an applicant. I also met with Chris Roling from financial aid. I’ve been emailing him so many questions and he always takes the time to answer them patiently and thoroughly. Every time I meet another person, it just further confirms this amazing culture that’s been built at Iowa. That feeling of support is so powerful.”
I think anyone who can try to solve a challenge that they see in the world should do it. It teaches you so much about yourself and gives you a lot of confidence that you can make a difference.
Yu looks forward to finding her place at the Carver College of Medicine.
“I truly believe that Iowa is the right place for me—the perfect environment for me to not only further my growth and development but also reach out to help others,” she says. “I’m very much looking forward to starting my medical journey, making new friends, and taking on new challenges. I hope to continue to do work which will benefit the people and the community around me. The education I’ll receive here will equip me with the knowledge and the skills to do just that.”