By Elaine Smith
Growing up with Type 1 diabetes has added an additional layer of challenge and stress to Lina Im’s life, but she won’t allow it to stop her from realizing her goals, which include graduating from York University.
“I don’t want to look at it as something that holds me back,” said, Im, an international student from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Im earned a 2023 Tentanda Via Award that allows her to pursue her BA in information technology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS). One of the award criteria is that the student be someone who has faced “significant personal barriers, and who despite these challenges, have persevered and demonstrated fortitude and resilience in overcoming these personal barriers in the pursuit of a university education.”
“It was most unexpected to be awarded the scholarship, but I was really happy because I wasn’t sure if I could afford to study abroad otherwise,” she said.
As a youngster in Cambodia, Im found that there wasn’t much understanding of Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease where the body is unable to produce its own insulin (and can't regulate their blood sugar) because the body is attacking the pancreas. It is a chronic disease that requires the sufferer to monitor their blood sugar level throughout the day and regulate it with injections of insulin. Today, many people, including Im, rely instead on an insulin pump that allows them to regulate their sugar level without injections.
“Our health-care system in Cambodia isn’t great and it contributed to the lack of education about chronic illnesses and misunderstandings about diabetes,” she said. “People don’t realize it’s manageable and there is huge fear around it.”
As a result, she believes that her parents were more protective of her than of her siblings, worrying that her activities would negatively affect her health.
“I was always told to go easy on myself and I didn’t like it,” Im said.
As she began to think about attending university, it occurred to her that she could leave home for post-secondary education.
“I wanted to be away from home, outside my comfort zone, to be able to grow and learn more about myself,” she said. “When I told my parents, they were worried.”
It didn’t help for them to see her putting a lot of pressure on herself to earn her high school International Baccalaureate credentials, as well as completing the Alberta curriculum, playing sports, serving as the president of the student council and volunteering to collect food for the hungry.
“Balancing all of that with managing my health was draining, but I persevered,” Im said. “My point is that although I have challenges, it shouldn’t be a barrier to what I want to do.”
Thanks to the Tentanda Via Award, she’s on track to fulfil that commitment.
