2026 Chi-Li Pao Foundation USA REACH Scholar
MD Program (Pathways track) 

Amy Vo is a fourth-year medical student in the Pathways program at Harvard Medical School. She was born and raised in New York City in a low-income Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant household, raised by a mother who worked long hours as an outdoor fruit vendor. Growing up, Amy helped her family navigate the American health care, education, and social services systems, experiences that sparked her interest in medicine and her commitment to supporting immigrant and low-income communities. Amy graduated from Columbia University in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in neuroscience and behavior. After college, she conducted research in translational neuroscience, focusing on Fragile X syndrome, at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute. She also worked as a medical assistant at a bilingual otolaryngology clinic in Chinatown, where she cared for elderly, low-income immigrant patients.

At HMS, Amy has focused on mentorship, health equity, and primary care. She served as co-chair of the Empower Conference, a free national conference for premedical students from underrepresented backgrounds. She also volunteers as a junior clinician with the Crimson Care Collaborative, providing free primary care to uninsured and underinsured patients, and conducts research on rheumatology and equity and access in medicine. Amy is now applying for residency in internal medicine and plans to pursue a career in primary care, particularly endocrinology, while continuing to integrate clinical care with mentorship, education, and advocacy on behalf of immigrant and low-income communities. As a first-generation, low-income student, she is deeply grateful for donor support, which has allowed her to fully engage in her training and pursue a career caring for immigrant and low-income communities.

Kevin Zhangxu is a Harvard Medical School student whose path has been shaped by a strong commitment to mission-driven, patient-centered care. He entered HMS interested in medical oncology, drawn to complex cancer diagnoses and rapidly evolving therapies, but his clinical experiences led him toward urologic oncology, where he can combine definitive surgical or ablative interventions with longitudinal relationships throughout a patient’s cancer journey. Outside of medicine, Kevin seeks out both literal and figurative “Class V” challenges: he loves navigating highly technical whitewater rapids that require instant, non-verbal teamwork, echoing the coordination of the operating room, and he relaxes by immersing himself in complex, strategic board games like Gloomhaven and Twilight Imperium, which demand long-term planning and careful resource management. 

Kevin’s involvement at HMS has closely complemented his evolving interests in procedural and functional care. As a dedicated member of the Urology Interest Group, he has helped organize and attend skills labs focused on cystoscopy and robotic simulation, experiences that provided early exposure to the procedural aspects of urologic care and directly reinforced his shift from medical to urologic oncology. In addition, his work on the Student Anatomy Team has deepened his understanding of complex urological and retroperitoneal anatomy, strengthening the structural foundation he will draw on as a surgeon. These experiences have given him a clearer vision of the kind of physician he hopes to become—technically skilled, thoughtful, and present for patients over the long term. 

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2026 Chi-Li Pao Foundation USA REACH Scholar 
MD Program (Pathways track) 

Zhi Lin is a Harvard Medical School student whose interest in medicine grew from a desire to address health care disparities. As an undergraduate, Zhi volunteered at soup kitchens, helping financially disadvantaged individuals obtain health insurance and stable housing. These experiences highlighted for Zhi how socioeconomic factors drive health outcomes and how meaningful it can be to meet patients where they are and, along with later work as a medical assistant and crisis counselor, inspired Zhi to pursue a career in internal medicine with a focus on preventive cardiology and the social determinants of health, ideally in an academic setting that combines patient care with research and teaching.

At HMS, Zhi has led several research projects on health disparities and cardiometabolic health, resulting in multiple first-author publications. Zhi has also studied links between sleep and cardiometabolic risk using CDC data and contributed to projects on Alzheimer’s disease models, glial biology, and online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In parallel, Zhi has been actively involved in the school community as a financial aid representative on the student council, a leader of the First-Generation Low-Income Student Group, and an executive board member of the Internal Medicine Interest Group.

Mentors have played a key role in Zhi’s development. Under the guidance of epidemiologist Dr. Izzuddin Aris, Zhi has gained strong training in study design, data analysis, and manuscript writing, particularly in projects related to health disparities and preventive cardiology. Clinically, primary care physician Dr. Katherine C. Wrenn has modeled compassionate, relationship-centered care that attends to both medical and social needs. Zhi is deeply grateful for HMS’s need-based financial aid and the generosity of donors, whose support has made it possible to pursue medical training, focus on research and service, and help build a more diverse and equitable community within medicine.