How my grandma inspired me
Pawlay Htoo is a first-generation Karen college student who wants to use her nursing skills to give back to her community.
By Emillia Aadland
Pawlay Htoo sat in her EMT uniform with her classmates at the Maplewood fire station. Sirens were going off, and Htoo and the EMT students rushed out. During this on-the-field call, Htoo connected with Karen patients, which sparked her passion for giving back and helping her community.
Htoo studies nursing at Bethel University. Her dream is to raise awareness about mental health in the Karen community. Mental health isn’t highly talked about, and Htoo wants to normalize and advocate for open discussion when her community struggles with PTSD, trauma, and other issues related to war and displacement. Her big dream is to one day return to Thailand or Burma and help her community, the Karen, access health care. She believes that everyone should be taken care of and wants to be able to use her nursing skills to help those back home.
“I always knew that I want to give back to my community because growing up my parents really emphasized, like, just remember where you came from,” Htoo said. “Know your roots.”
Since 6th grade, she has known she wants to do the nursing program at Bethel. Her grandma, who delivered babies in the jungle with almost nothing but her hands, has been her most significant source of inspiration.
Born in refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border, Htoo was fortunate enough to have access to some health care, while many kids outside of the camp weren’t as fortunate.
As a first-generation college student, attending Bethel University is a massive accomplishment for Htoo. She gained the knowledge she has through the nursing department. She was able to attend Bethel with the Act Six scholarship, which is a full-ride scholarship for individuals who want to use their diverse experience to make a difference in their communities.
“She’s also very good at normalizing conversations around mental health and like normalizing those conversations, making them feel youth feeling comfortable talking about what they’re going through.” — Carly Miller, Special Projects Manager.
Htoo heard about Urban Village in 2020 but started attending when she came to Bethel.
Htoo works as a student worker at Urban Village, a non-profit organization in St.Paul, MN, where Karen refugees in the community can come and hang out.
“I see her working a lot with our young people and connecting with them,” said Carly Miller, special projects manager at Urban Village. “And she’s also very good at normalizing conversations around mental health and, like normalizing those conversations, making them feel comfortable talking about what they’re going through and what they might have as vulnerabilities or difficulties. She makes people feel comfortable.”
Htoo already uses some of her personable skills to give back to her community. She loves hanging out and getting to know the people she is with. Many Urban Village students like Si Poe Rah admire her passion and drive to give back to her community.
She talks with young Karen students about the importance of mental health; most importantly, she is a friend and guides them. These interactions are essential to Htoo because she wants to return to Thailand or Burmese and give back to her community there.
“With wanting to go back, I feel like it’s everybody that wants to go back,” Rah said, “but her decision is like something that like could help our community back home, and then just providing aid for the people is something that they need a lot because they don’t have the opportunity or like the money for medicines and stuff.”
Htoo’s drive, love for her people, and roots have kept her going.” she talks a lot about going back to Thailand and potentially Myanmar (Burma) post-graduation to use her skills as a nurse but also to be able to give back to the community,” Miller said.
Getting that hands-on EMT experience in Roseville Area High School and her grandma’s Lay Day inspiration has ignited a fire inside Htoo and made her a kind and persistent go-getter.
“I’m passionate about helping my community, but I can’t help my community,” Htoo said, “if I am ashamed of where I came from. So that was the turning point of I’m not ashamed because you can’t really t alter a story of where you came from. It’s embedded in your life, so you have to embrace that.”
