Lakshmi Asokan was in Grade 4 when she noticed how language and cultural barriers affected her immigrant Sri Lankan family in the health-care system. When her grandmother was hospitalized, she and her sisters filled in the gaps for her parents.
After a degree in human biology and psychology at U of T Scarborough, she worked at the Scarborough Health Network and in the neonatal intensive care unit and pediatrics at North York General Hospital. This fall she joins the first cohort of Bloomberg Nursing nurse practitioner students in the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health.
She hopes one day to open a clinic in Scarborough that doubles as a hub of community resources for families.
Reported from U of T student aims to deliver culturally competent health care in the community she calls home (U of T News, September 1, 2026).
More from the original reporting: www.utoronto.ca/news/u-t-student-aims-deliver-culturally-competent-health-care-community-she-calls-home