Johny Vishak John

John

"Millions are denied their basic rights of health and health education. I see myself working for the disadvantaged . . . as an active advocate for my patients."

  • Alumni of: 2003 Graduate Scholarship Program

Biography

Vishak's interest in health care started with a routine check-up. His physician heard murmurs and suspected a hole in the heart valve. The following days of tests and consultations were filled with anguish-but the doctor's care and concern and willingness to explain helped allay Vishak's fears. It was then that he understood the impact a physician could have, and his career exploration began.

Part of Vishak's exploration was internal. As a first-generation immigrant who came to Roanoke from India at 13, he struggled with self-identity. For years, as he puts it, he was "an Indian at home and an American in the outside world," feeling parental pressure to conform to tradition and the pull of an American lifestyle from friends and society. Vishak's resolution came through active introspection and eventually embracing the idea of being an Indian-American: "When I sit back at home watching my favorite American football team play while enjoying my mother's excellent Indian rice and curry with my fingers, I know that I am being true to myself."

Vishak began his medical explorations as a volunteer at Bradley Free Clinic, which provides health care for the working poor. To that, he added the experience of being a nursing assistant at Roanoke Memorial Hospital and a research assistant at Wake Forest University School of Medicine; volunteering to create a database on the health of Aboriginal children for UNICEF; taking a service trip to Georgia to work with refugee children; doing summer research on Ayurvedic (traditional Indian) medicine; and working one-on-one with an autistic child.

Conscious that "many children around the world and in my own town are not afforded the luxury of caring and concerned parents," Vishak is also a "Big Brother" to a disadvantaged boy in Winston-Salem.

Vishak helped to create a new service learning opportunity at Wake Forest. The Tie That Binds Service Trip brought together 11 undergrads and a faculty advisor for 15 days at the Cheyenne River Lakota Reservation. The group managed daily tasks and worked with Native children in an after-school program at the Billy Mills Youth Center. As team leader, Vishak learned about conflict resolution, acting as liaison between teammates, the faculty advisor and the Youth Center workers.

His long-term goal? "I want to be a socially and culturally aware physician, not just a scientifically proficient one. I envision myself as a physician who empowers his patients with information about their health. I see myself working in a medically underserved area, perhaps a Native American reservation or in Aboriginal Australia."

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