To Create Your Own Destiny: Lay Lian Doh

October 7, 2022

Born in a refugee camp in Thailand, Lay Lian Doh immigrated to the United States at six years old with her family. They came alone; their relatives had been scattered from Australia to Norway. Unable to speak English, and with no family or friends to assist them, Lay Lian’s parents struggled to find employment to support their four children. Her father moved to Logan for work while the children attended school in Salt Lake City where her mother worked cleaning hotel rooms. The family was together only occasionally during their first years in the country. 

Lay Lian’s mother eventually found a job in Cache Valley, and the entire family relocated to Logan. Lay Lian remembers her parents working long hours and returning home sore and tired. She learned to cook for the family to ease some of the burden off her parents. She massaged their hands and feet at night and contemplated how she might better appreciate their sacrifices to provide the family with opportunities.

lay lian doh
Lay Lian Doh

Language was a constant challenge during her first years in America. As she slowly began to learn English, Lay Lian noticed she was forgetting her native language and losing the ability to communicate fully with her parents, whose manual labor jobs didn’t require much verbal communication. Translating between the two languages proved frustrating. At the same time, she was still struggling with English fluency and had to repeat 2nd grade. Humiliated at first, she realized this was an opportunity to take control of her future. “My parents had sacrificed so much for me to be here, and I didn’t want that to go to waste. I wanted to make them proud, so I worked hard in school,” she says. Repeating that year of school helped her value her opportunity for an education. She was tired of her teachers and peers thinking she had no intellectual ability and determined to prove them wrong. She became a diligent student, earning straight A’s throughout the rest of her K-12 education.

When Lay Lian was in high school, her mother started a sushi restaurant in Nevada. The responsibilities of caring for her younger siblings while her parents were away, trying to maintain her grades, and hold a job helped her more fully understand her parents’ love and sacrifices to help the family. “Gratitude for our opportunities and love for each other helped my family survive our difficulties. It helped us become resilient,” says Lay Lian. 

Now a USU student and Huntsman Scholar, Lay Lian is studying international business with a goal to help create educational opportunities for refugees to enable them to build better lives for themselves. During Spring semester 2022, she organized a service project to collect, organize, and redistribute more than 70 bags of clothes, shoes, toys, and other essential items to refugees in Cache Valley. She also volunteers as a ONE Ambassador, helping refugees obtain educational and employment opportunities, and build social networks by engaging in service projects.

“My parents’ courage and strength have inspired and motivated me to do better,” says Lay Lian, who is enlivened by her opportunities to lift others. “Love has real value. To show love for others reveals what kind of a person you are. Choose love as a way to connect to other people. Even if you can’t connect on communication, you can connect with an act of service.”