A4 • Friday, July 22, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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Hometown girl makes good
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
B
ao Tran Nhan is back in her hometown.
The Seaside High School gradu-
ate returns as a resident physician with
Providence.
“My family grew up very poor in Vietnam
and actually emigrated from Vietnam,” she
said. “I came to Seaside when I was 5. I saw a
lot of poverty.”
Her parents, Ti-Ti Le and Kevin Nhan,
became a success story, owning and operating
A-Nails Seaside.
Even at a young age, Nhan wanted to serve
the community.
“I wasn’t quite sure how to help people the
best,” she said. “It wasn’t until my grandma got
sick when I was in high school where I realized
how much health can impact someone’s life.
Her oncologist was able to treat her with such
compassion and such care. He was able to kind
of lead her through a really tough time.”
She received experience in medical and
dental clinics and at the foundation where she
worked on fundraising campaigns. “I was like,
‘Hey, this is something I might pursue,’” she
said.
Nhan was also a busser at Pig ‘N Pancake,
a member of the Seaside High School golf
team, manager on the swim team and percus-
sionist and pianist for the high school band.
She graduated as valedictorian and was voted
prom queen in her senior year.
Nhan received her bachelor’s with a major
in biochemistry and a minor in biology from
the University of Portland.
“I actually liked to study,” she said. “I love
school. To be honest, I think it was something
that I really excelled in. Whenever I studied, I
loved kind of feeding my mind. My curiosity
encouraged me to even study more, so it was
rather easy for me.”
She attended the University of Colorado
School of Medicine near Denver, where she
lived and studied for four years.
It was more diffi cult than she thought —
even for someone who likes to study. “It was
quite rigorous and tough, but I’m really grate-
ful for the education I got there,” she said.
“There were just so many nice people. I’d
stayed around Oregon for most of my life —
nice to see what’s out there.”
After medical school, Nhan returned to
Portland, where she is one of 21 physicians
participating in the Providence Oregon Family
Medicine Residency program.
Along with practicing in an urban environ-
ment, she participates in a program where res-
idents spend a month in a more rural area —
and she chose Seaside.
Nhan entered the medical fi eld during the
time of the pandemic. At the end of her fourth
year in medical school, COVID changed the
profession.
“It was defi nitely really scary being a brand
new doctor jumping into the medical fi eld,
which is in itself, kind of terrifying,” she said.
ABOVE: Bao Tran Nhan
after medical school
graduation.
LEFT: Bao Tran Nhan with
parents Ti-Ti Le and Kevin
Nhan after medical school
graduation.
RIGHT: Bao Tran Nhan
at Seaside High School
graduation.
“But then adding on a pandemic where we had
no idea what was going to happen put a tail-
spin on things.”
The scariest thing for families during
COVID can be the isolation from loved ones.
“It is really painful,” she said. “The only
people that they see are their care providers.
Sometimes you can set up an iPad or some-
thing that you can talk to your loved ones, but
they’re intubated, they can’t talk back. It’s a
whole diff erent ballgame. It breaks my heart
to see when people are in the ICU, not doing
well, their families calling us to see if they’re
able to visit — and us having to say ‘no,’
unfortunately.”
With limited resources, doctors and hospi-
tals face the kinds of ethical deliberations “that
maybe weren’t too much in the forefront in the
past.”
Much of the pandemic measures, such as
increased levels of personal protective equip-
ment for staff , are likely to remain. “I think
that with the pandemic kind of slowing down
a little bit, we’re relaxing a little bit some of
those guidelines,” she said. “But we’re always
thinking about where the trajectory of the pan-
demic is and adjusting as needed.”
During the second year of residency, the
program sends one resident physician to Sea-
side to explore what medical practice is like in
a rural community. Nhan alternates four weeks
in Seaside and four weeks in Portland. “I
wasn’t aware of this opportunity until I inter-
viewed for the job position and found out that
I would get the opportunity to be back in my
hometown,” she said.
Among her patients are former classmates,
their parents and children. “That’s just kind of
the name of the game in the small town,” she
said.
A typical day is caring for patients in the
primary care clinic, the emergency room, or
admitted to the hospital.
“I’m so grateful to this community for wel-
coming my family and I into the community
with open arms and continuing to support us
through all these years,” Nhan said. “Although
I was born in Vietnam, Seaside will always be
my home and I hope to be able to give back to
this community in the future.”
Bao Tran Nhan as fi rst grade student of the
month.
OP-ED
From the Aquarium: Beach Discovery Program
SEASIDE
AQUARIUM
TIFFANY
BOOTHE
A
fter taking a two-year hiatus due to
COVID , our Beach Discovery Pro-
gram is back.
This summer, the Beach Discovery Pro-
gram will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
on Saturdays from July through August. The
p rogram is a free, educational program that
sets up on the beach in front of the Seaside
Aquarium.
The public is invited to come learn about
the marine life found along Seaside’s open
sandy beach, beach and dune ecology and the
many ways the b each has changed over time.
We also hand out beach cleaning supplies for
those people who want to help remove trash
before it ends up in the marine environment.
This program is very weather dependent. If
it is raining or if the wind picks up, people are
encouraged to call the Seaside Aquarium at
503-738-6211 to see if the program is running.
For 26 years, the Beach Discovery Pro-
gram has invited summer visitors to learn
about, and talk about, the natural world they
have come to explore. Young and old alike
are delighted with the personal attention,
hands-on displays, old photos and great dis-
cussions that ensue.
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
Seaside Aquarium
The Seaside Beach Discovery Program is a free program which sets up on the beach in front of
the Seaside Aquarium.
Staff members use several interactive dis-
plays. We have a wave table to springboard
talks about various kinds of waves, sand trans-
port, seasonal changes, change over time and
tsunamis.
Our microscopes show diverse creatures,
including plant and animal plankton, lead-
ing us to discuss all of E arth’s dependence
on these huge varieties of tiny creatures. The
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Samantha
Stinnett
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff TerHar
giant magnets and a sand drop tube lead to
discussions about our local sand.
We also have sand from around the world,
changing people’s notion of what sand actu-
ally is and how ocean creatures choose their
beach depending on the topography available.
We have many historical photos to help
people compare human and geological change
over time. We add shells and other tideline
discoveries to reinforce the idea that chang-
ing geology and an ever-changing ocean can
lead to important changes for people, plants
and animals.
One popular display in the form of a sign-
post points out that people are not our only
tourists, and that many of these swimming or
fl ying animals make enormous journeys round
trip every year.
We use instruments such as tide tables,
wind gauges, thermometers and a salin-
ity gauge to compare daily, and sometimes
hourly, changes to a seemingly static beach.
These lead to displays about beach safety, ver-
bal talks about gravity, the moon and tides,
sand movement, upwelling, rip currents and
the food chain. All of this helps to spark dis-
cussions that lead to helping people see the
interconnectivity of sand, the water, the air, the
plants and animals, the E arth and the moon;
and humans’ relationships to that process.
Every morning before the program offi -
cially opens, staff members record the wind
speed, air and ocean temperature, ocean salin-
ity and tide data. Then they collect samples
of plankton and tiny critters along the ocean’s
edge and note anything unusual for the day.
Wide-ranging discussions occur daily with a
steady fl ow of information, questions and pon-
dering that keep our displays fresh and evolv-
ing. Some visitors stop and are gone in under
fi ve minutes. Many stay 30 minutes to an hour.
We hear nearly every day from people who
have visited in prior years or plan their yearly
vacation around our summer schedule.
Seaside Signal
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