Ada’s Pathway: Healing Hearts

When Ada walked across the stage at Graduation, it marked the culmination of a 16-year journey; one that began in Nursery at Bangkok Patana School and is now set to continue to medical school. From the start, for Ada, Patana was a community that shaped her passions, values and ambitions. “It helped me discover what I liked from sports and clubs to leadership and volunteering,” she says. And she didn’t just join things; she led them. Ada served as House Captain, Senior Delegate, President of Hands to Heart, and founder of Healing Hearts, a club promoting cardiovascular health awareness.

Beyond a creative extra-curricular, Healing Hearts was personal. “I’ve seen firsthand in my family the life-altering effect cardiovascular disease has on lives, and it made me realise how something so preventable can be so serious without awareness and early care.” Over a two years span, Ada and her team helped raise more than THB 160,000 through Healing Hearts’ events—tennis and pickleball tournaments that combined community fun with serious fundraising.

But it was a different initiative that sparked her desire to pursue medicine: the Hands to Heart campaign supporting premature infants in neonatal ICUs. “When I saw how fragile those babies were, and how critical care could make a life-changing difference, I knew I wanted to be part of that world,” she says, “That’s when I realised I wanted to study medicine.” Ada has opted for the Thai programme at Thammasat University.

Ada’s passion was solidified through shadowing cardiologists in both Bangkok and rural hospitals across Thailand. On a school-organised trip, she witnessed the disparities in Thailand’s healthcare system. “Some patients were travelling hours to be seen. Others couldn’t afford proper care. But the doctors were doing so much with so little. It made me want to be part of the solution.” She doesn’t know yet if she’ll specialise in pediatrics or cardiology, “Maybe both,” she grins, but she knows the kind of doctor she wants to be: one who listens, who acts, and who gives people the care they deserve.

Outside the hospital shadowing and club organising, Ada has been a staple of the Bangkok Patana athletics community. She started swimming in Foundation Stage 2 and never stopped. “It’s been such a huge part of my life. Training four to six times a week with competitions on weekends. It really taught me discipline and resilience.” She also played teeball, football, basketball and participated in Primary Athletics. “By Year 9, I had to tone it down because balancing everything was getting hard. But swimming stuck with me. It always did.”

Ask Ada about her favourite memories and she doesn’t hesitate. “Inter-House events, seeing your friends in the corridors, PE lessons with your classmates… it’s those everyday moments that you don’t realise you’ll miss until they’re gone.

Volunteering has also played a significant role in Ada’s development. Since Year 10, she’s spent summers and school trips teaching English and Mathematics to children in rural Thai schools. “There’s something really special about connecting with kids in those communities. I love going back.”

“I used to think doctors were superheroes,” she says, “They could stop pain, save lives. Now I know they’re humans who worked really hard, and I want to be one of them.”

From the swimming pool to the science lab, from House leadership to hospital wards, Ada’s journey has been one of compassion and tenacity. As she prepares to leave the only school she’s ever known, she carries forward a legacy of service—and a future filled with promise.