Alanna Lam: Breathing Deeply

Growing up the middle child in an immigrant family, Alanna Lam had a lot more on her plate than most of her peers. At school, she was an ambitious, successful student. At home, she had many of the same responsibilities as most adults: caring for her younger sister, reading and interpreting the mail, and translating bills or other correspondences for her parents and grandmother. “I knew my life was different from everybody else at school. Having to take care of so much at home and then going to school all day…it felt like I was living a double life.”  When the time came for Alanna to think about going to college, she knew the price of attendance would be calculable both in dollars and in time, since she’d have to spend much of it away from the family who relied so heavily on her for day-to-day support.

Childhood in the Lam household

Originally from Vietnam, Alanna’s parents work hard to support their family. Before immigrating to the US, her father had very little formal education. From a young age, he worked manual jobs to support himself and his mother. After saving what he could, he was able to afford passage to the US, and eventually, he settled in St. Louis. Alanna’s mother was born to Chinese parents in Vietnam and received no formal education. She, too, worked as a child. After immigrating to the US, she met and married Alanna’s father, and they built a life together in Overland, MO. Through hard work and determination, they were able to bring their mothers to the US and, together with them, raised three daughters in the two-bedroom home where they still live today. Of her childhood home, Alanna lovingly recalls, “We had no privacy, whatsoever.”

By her senior year at Ritenour High School, Alanna had one overriding goal:  to take care of her family so they wouldn’t have to worry anymore. Given the high price of college, she planned on enlisting in the military. It was her high school counselor, along with a leadership teacher and mentor, who told her, “You have what it takes, and you will thrive in college.” Her counselor encouraged her to apply to a variety of schools and to The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis. The year was 2020, and amid a global pandemic, Alanna decided on the University of Missouri – St. Louis. She received substantial scholarships to cover most of her tuition costs, but there was no money to cover additional fees, books, room, or board.

Alanna knew that to be successful in college, she needed to leave her crowded childhood home and live on campus. Shortly after gaining acceptance to college, and in the middle of her shift as a cashier at a large hardware store, she got an email from The Scholarship Foundation. At first, she thought she was being offered a loan, which she had already decided she wouldn’t take. After re-reading the letter with her older sister, she realized that she had won a renewable scholarship grant: the BJC Scholarship. It was enough to cover the gap in her funding so that she could go to college, live on campus, work just part-time at her job, and focus on her studies. “For the first time ever in my life, I finally felt like, wow, I could breathe.”

Alanna decided on nursing for her major and worked her way through school, still helping out at home and growing a side business as an eyelash extension specialist. And while the road wasn’t always smooth in nursing school, she credits the support of her fundamental skills instructor, Amber James, and her Scholarship Foundation advisor, Ricky Hughes, with providing the stability and encouragement that she needed to get through the tough parts and make it to graduation in December 2024.

The Lam sisters, Dianne, Alanna, and AprilRose, at Alanna’s graduation party.

Growing up in Overland, Alanna had a diverse friend group, and as an Asian American, she never felt out of place in her community. When she started the nursing program, though, she recalled suddenly feeling like she didn’t belong. “It felt like nobody cared about me. My parents didn’t understand about college. Ricky checked in on me regularly and was genuinely interested in how I was feeling. He told me, ‘You have a village. You will graduate. We are here for you.’  That’s really what got me through college.”

In addition to her BJC Scholarship, Alanna has also received support from the Foundation in the form of micro-grants for study materials and board exam fees. She has worked part-time at a medical spa through college, and after passing her boards, she will work there full-time as a nurse. She is living on her own, paying her own bills, and is proud to be honoring her parents and grandmothers, whose support is what keeps her going every day. Her next big goal? She plans to “retire her mom” in two years, making it possible for both of her parents to enjoy retirement together at age sixty.