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Full circle moments have brought Gina Ngo (Medical Science MPhil 2024) to ����Ӱҵ College and the University of Cambridge.

A child of Cambodian refugees – more of which later – Gina grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has joined Caius for the first year of . is a collaboration which sends up to 50 scholars annually from the United States to study in the United Kingdom.

Gina has wanted to be a medical doctor since the age of five and while still in high school volunteered at hospitals in Philadelphia, including Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). She volunteered in the Neuro-ICU where she met a patient who had glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. 

“One day I walked into a patient’s room, one of the few patients who was conscious and awake,” Gina says. “She had just had a sudden diagnosis of glioblastoma. I’d heard of it, but didn’t understand it. She explained to me how deadly it was; she was diagnosed by an MRI which was done for something else. She was otherwise very healthy and it was a complete shock. I didn’t know what to say. That set everything off for me.”

Gina resolved to study cancer research. She applied for Villanova University, Pennsylvania, and was awarded the Presidential Scholarship, a full ride scholarship, studying biology as a pre-medical degree alongside Peace and Justice and Chinese. While an undergraduate, Gina sought research internships, including in Boston at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The laboratory’s focus was on glioblastoma.

“Wow, that’s a full circle moment,” Gina says. “I remember desperately wanting to help this patient, and I couldn’t. Now I could indirectly contribute to this mission of trying to make aggressive brain tumours like glioblastoma less incurable. It was definitely a challenging experience. I was only a second year undergraduate student, so I was learning a lot of lab techniques on the spot and worked hard every single day. I was very happy with the progress I made. That inspired me to continue this brain tumour research journey.”

Gina was later awarded a and interned at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Radiation Oncology on paediatric brain tumours, all the while completing her undergraduate degree and completing the demanding application for the Marshall Scholarship.

Her community-focused approach is clear. While at Villanova, Gina wanted to volunteer at a refugee charity. She knew of her family’s history – “I come from a family of refugees; my parents’ generation survived the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia,” she says – but she did not know all the details at that time.

“Philadelphia is a major refugee resettlement hub and I wanted to hone in on this side of my family,” she adds. “I wanted to establish an organisation at Villanova, , to introduce my peers to this population of people in our backyard. I created this partnership with (NSC). I hadn’t talked to my parents about this. I just went on Google and found NSC and scheduled a call with them.

“The day before Thanksgiving in 2020, with Covid-19 still rampant, a large number of refugees from Afghanistan had just arrived. I volunteered at an NSC event to distribute lunch to them. I saw all these families, overwhelmed from fleeing their homeland in search of a new permanent home. I did not know until later that day when I talked to my parents that I was volunteering at the same organisation which helped my family resettle. NSC taught my family English, and now I’m helping refugees learn English. It’s another full circle moment.

“I feel I have an immense amount of privilege as a first generation American, but also as a second generation refugee to give back and help other families resettle.”

The story of Gina’s family is compelling. Her family is scattered globally, from the US to France, Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Cambodia. 

Her mother escaped early in the genocide, initially leaving for Thailand, then Hong Kong. Her father had to endure the Cambodian civil war and genocide, before escaping, aged 21. Arriving in Philadelphia with little English, her father was helped by NSC and worked hard to receive an education before opening up his own business, a dollar store (the US equivalent of a pound shop). It thrived, before a national chain moved into the neighbourhood.

Gina’s mother received an education in Hong Kong and then was hosted in Michigan on an exchange programme to finish high school and attend university. From there she was invited to Philadelphia to meet a family friend. By coincidence, that event was at Gina’s paternal grandfather’s house.

Gina says: “That’s where my parents met. They were from the same village in Cambodia but had never met until then.” 

Home is important to Gina, but so is education and making a difference for those in need. She is enjoying all three at Caius and Cambridge, as a member of the , the Cancer Research UK lab run by Professor Richard Gilbertson, the College’s incoming Master.

“I’m working with a postdoc on childhood brain tumour research from an immunology standpoint. Our model is ependymoma, a rare paediatric brain tumour,” Gina says.

She continues to support refugees in the UK through the Student Action for Refugees while enjoying being part of Caius MCR. 

She adds: “Cambridge has exceeded my expectations so much. My experience at Caius has been everything I hoped for and more. The Caius MCR Port Nights are special – I have met so many lovely people.”