Each issue, the LASA Liberator interviews an alumni of the high school on their achievements now as a raptor “in the wild,” This not only includes interviews focused on their careers and achievements but their time at LASA and the effect the school had on their future. This issue, UCLA LGBTQ+ Healthcare Fellow and LASA Alumni Delaney Rawson was interviewed for the story. 

LASA Liberator: What was your experience like at LASA?

Rawson: I think LASA offered the opportunity to really explore whatever topics I was interested in in a way that was facilitated by both the community and the teachers. Also, it really challenged me academically in a way that very much prepared me for higher education. I think my hardest classes at LASA were harder than any of my college classes, which was good. A challenge, but good. 

LASA Liberator: During medical school, you were a student director for a pride clinic in San Antonio. What was that like?

Rawson: It was a growth opportunity. Our medical school had a number of student-run clinics. There were clinics for the unhoused, for refugees, or for women with substance abuse [problems]. My first year of medical school, they opened a brand new clinic which served uninsured LGBTQ patients in the community. We were in charge of organizing volunteers, making sure they were able to provide competent care for our LGBTQ patients, and helping the faculty get their feet under them. We were trying to set up a system that did a good job, both for the students who were volunteering there and for our patients. That space was when I fell in love with LGBTQ care. 

I have never seen patients so appreciative for such suboptimal care. We would have patients waiting hours, and when we asked for feedback, they would still say everything was perfect. I was like, ‘Everything is not perfect,’ but I am glad that we exist because so many of our patients have just been mistreated by the healthcare system that I decided to march. Facing that injustice made me committed to doing better as a member of the healthcare system.

LASA Liberator: What are your favorite parts of the job?

Rawson: I think my favorite part is how special the relationship with your patients is. I already liked primary care and that relationship, but being someone’s HIV doctor, being the first person who tells them that it’s okay, and that they’re going to be okay, is a really special space … Being someone’s gender health provider is really getting to watch people blossom. And being like a lighthouse in the sea of chaos and political unrest is a really special place for me to occupy. 

LASA Liberator: What would you tell LASA students interested in pursuing a medical career or interested in helping the LGBTQ+ community?

Rawson: I think there’s a lot that can be done at every level, even just advocating for kindness and compassion. Medicine is a really challenging field, and I think anyone who’s interested in it should make sure that they’re in it for a good reason, because you’re gonna have to fall back on that reason a lot throughout the seven-plus years of medical training.

LASA Liberator: Do you ever look back on your time at LASA, and if so, what do you remember strongest?

Rawson: For one, I met my husband there. We think about it a lot because we met in Algebra 2, sitting next to each other. I also think, especially when I was still in [medical] school, I would reflect back on the academic rigor that was provided from the confidence a lot of my teachers had [in me] that I could do right. They would really challenge me, but they also expected me to rise to that occasion. And I think that was a really productive space to be in, and it led me to believe that I could do so much more. I don’t know, but hopefully I accomplished it. I think I did okay.