Shwe Yee Thinn
Liberal Arts, Math and Science, Biology
Shwe Yee Thinn graduated high school in Myanmar in 2020, a time of seismic changes in that country and across the globe.
“I took three gap years after my high school graduation in Asia due to the pandemic and military coup in Myanmar,” she said. “I joined the student protest and gave up my opportunity to apply to universities in Myanmar.”
Instead, she worked as an ESL teaching assistant for children at a language school for two years, then took another gap year to immigrate to the United States, where she found work as a registered behavior technician and saved enough money to start college.
Thinn chose Los Medanos College as an accessible way to jump-start her higher education goals and soon discovered there was more to her new learning environment than credits and grades.
“The community is one thing I treasure most at LMC,” she said. “I got most of my support from my friends. I had my friends who kept encouraging me to keep going, my mentors who had their office available whenever I needed most and MESA, where I built my supportive STEM community.”
Thinn graduates this spring and expects to transfer to the University of California, Davis. Her long-term goal is to complete an M.D.-Ph.D. program there and work for a university hospital.
Now, at 22, and embarking on her next chapter, Thinn says she has come away from LMC and the past few years with a sense of resilience.
“When things go hard or if I feel lost, I just keep reminding myself – I will find a way.”