Donuts and Public Health — A Few Spoken Words
“Hey. Are you interested in working on a side project about donuts? It’s for the School of Public Health.”
It was on November 15, 2016, when my professor approached me. He knew that I grew up working for my parents’ donut shop back in East Los Angeles. He was invited to give a presentation for the School of Public Health on Cal Day, a showcase for thousands of outside guests to the University of California, Berkeley campus.
It was on April 22, 2017, that Jaspal Sandhu gave a #CalDay talk on #donuts, diaspora, and entrepreneurship. The third most popular Instagram post of #sharecalday, we launched, “Reimagine Donuts.” I never imagined for this 20-minute talk showcasing the phenomenon of Cambodian-owned donut shops would lead to the “Pink Box Stories” project as I know (and love) today. Through the many iterations that this project has gone through — the many local donut and coffee shop meetings after class in the late afternoon discussing and debating logo design, name change, media platform — my favorite part by far has been seeing the many ways each team member has been inspired by their own lives and their own personal connections to donuts.
It was on May 13, 2018, Mother’s Day, that I took inspiration from this project and shared my own story in front of 2,000 people at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, as the undergraduate speaker for the School of Public Health Commencement.
I’ve often scribbled notes of my daydreams of this speech — bits and pieces that I would think to incorporate into my fantasy TED Talk about my life.
A little bit about my childhood. A little bit about public health. A lot from my heart.
“Good afternoon graduates, faculty, friends, and family. (Surprise, Mom and Dad!) My name is Michelle Sou and I’m no longer a fourth year, public health major, I and the other students before you are soon to be public health graduates.
I’d like everyone to close your eyes. It’s the middle of the afternoon, and quite frankly I think everyone’s tired of staring up here, so I’m cutting you all a break, please take advantage of it!!
I’d like you all to think about donuts. What comes to mind when you hear the word “donuts”? Just picture whatever it is.
Now, it’s been a while since lunch so many of you are probably thinking of your favorite donut- ooey glazed old fashioned, warm apple fritter, rainbow sprinkled cake donut…Well actually, this is a public health graduation so I assume all my peers are just seeing the words OBESITY and FOOD DESERTS with bright red flashing lights behind their eyelids.
Keep your eyes closed and I want you to envision what I see when I hear the word “donuts” // What do I see when I heard the word “donuts”? I see my dad, dancing and singing to Cambodian pop music as he cranks the contraption that spits out dough onto the fryer into perfectly round donut shapes // as he precariously flips the donuts in the fryer one by one at just the right golden brown moment with his humongous chopsticks.
I see my mom leaning over the pale yellow counter, chatting about this week’s big Mega Million jackpot in Spanish, her sixth language, with the Mexican immigrant customers who have been coming to the shop for the past 20 years.
I see my older brother and I a foot shorter, 10 years younger, playing Robot Wrestler with giant cardboard boxes over our heads. Open your eyes.
And the thing is… I don’t even like donuts. I hate the smell of them. I even used to hate being at the donut shop. I couldn’t appreciate what I had: that I didn’t have to give up school to sustain our family’s business, the way my father had to drop out of Cal Poly Pomona, nor did I appreciate the additional time I spent with my mom during those nights when I only saw her for dinner every other night.
But as I grew more homesick being at Cal and missed my family, I often reminisced about these memories I’ve shared with them at this very place, a donut shop called Olympics Donuts #11 on a little corner lot on First and Gage in East Los Angeles.
Just like donuts, we all have different visions that come to mind when we think of the place we come from, the place we called home before starting our undergraduate career here at UC Berkeley.
We all come from different places, but we have shared so much together as SPH students. We’ve been through the confusion of “where is University Hall?” or “which 150 is that?” or struggle to answer the biggest question of all: “what actually is public health?”. My aunts and uncles still think my degree means I’ll be a health inspector for their donut shops in Southern California…so I can’t quite help answer that question well for anyone here.
And when we walk off this stage, we will continue to share together as colleagues and fellow public health warriors. Whether we fight the good fight of public health as medical providers, epidemiologists, biostatisticians…as grantmakers, community advocates, health educators or policymakers, we will continue to share the experience of being uniquely prepared to thrive in a constantly changing world.
We’ve been together through periods of turmoil and tension, and will likely remember where we were on campus and who we were with during those unforgettable moments like Black Lives Matter, the 2016 presidential election, and Free Speech Week.
We’ve been given an amazing privilege to be graduating from the top public university in the world with a top ranking public health undergraduate program. We’ve seen the first woman chancellor and first black representative of California. We share the experiences and knowledge we’ve been fortunate to gain from world-renowned professors, guest speakers, mentors…and each other.
While most of us will journey into separate paths from here, we will be intertwined in the future as we continue the fight together towards making a positive impact on health. No matter where you end up, be unwavering in your passion. Be relentless in pursuing your goals. And above all, be resilient.
It won’t be easy, but for the future of health equity, we need to be strong. When I went home after my first year at Cal, my grandpa sat me down, squeezed my hands and told me with such fierce conviction in his raspy voice, “diet cak co jot. Diet cak co tak”. Translated from Teochew, it means “work hard and study hard, even when it’s tough.”
And when it gets tough, remember the shared connections you’ve made in your time here. If there’s anything I’ve learned besides what the social determinants of health are (over and over again every semester), it’s to find the people who support you, who celebrate your wins and remind you that what you see as failure is only a faltering moment. Find the people who are unwavering in their voice when they tell you that you can do it, that they believe in your potential, and hold onto them. Never settle for anything less, because life is too hard and too short to surround yourself with people who don’t help you be your best self. And buy the ones already in your life their favorite donut to show you appreciate them! ☺
To my BTC, KGD, Fung Fellowship, and Floor 8 Griffiths families: thank you for helping me do just that. In a school of 42,000 students, I am blessed to have found 4 communities with empowering, inspiring people who make Cal feel like another home. I guess I owe all of you a donut now.
To all the mothers and maternal figures out there, Happy Mother’s Day. To all the fathers, mentors, friends, professors, thank you for helping us through this journey. Jaspal, James, Ashley, thank you for your constant encouragement and support, I wouldn’t be here without you. Mama, Papa, Gong, Ma, GeGe, I love you and I thank you. To all my fellow first-generation college students, thank you for getting through this against all odds. And to all my wonderful public health peers, thank you for lifting each other up when Berkeley gets us down. We have grown and will continue to be public health warriors. We did it. Now let’s go change the world.
Thank you. Go Bears and go Public Health!”
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