Mia is a 27 year old college student at a four year university.

Mia is a 27 year old college student at a four year university. She is the first in her family 

to attend college. She is also the eldest female in her family, and has 4 younger siblings. 

Mia’s parents brought their family to the USA from Thailand when Mia was 3 years old. 

Mia’s family has very high expectations for her role in the family. Her mother and father 

work very hard. They own a mobile food truck selling authentic Thai food, and Mia and 

her siblings work the mobile food truck at night after class and on the weekends. 

Sometimes they start at 4:00 am prepping the day’s food to be sold in the truck. 

Mia’s father consistently asks her when she will be done with college and doesn’t 

understand what she will do with her degree in health science. Mia’s mother thinks she 

is still in school to become a nurse. This brings Mia a lot of stress and uncertainty. She 

wants her parents to be proud of her and her accomplishments. 

Both Mia’s parents have chronic health conditions. Her father has type 2 diabetes and 

needs dialyses multiple times a week. Mia is also responsible for taking him to dialysis 

appointments. Mia’s mother has very high blood pressure and suffers from dizziness 

and frequent headaches. Mia goes with her parents to their medical appointments and 

helps them communicate with their doctor as both parents do not speak English. 

Mia has little time for a social life. She carries a full time load of courses at college every 

semester and has taken out more than $15,000 in student loan debt so far in her college 

education. However, lately Mia is missing class because she isn’t feeling well. Mia is 

finding herself sick with stomach and bowel issues, frequent colds and headaches. She 

has trouble sleeping at night and finds herself turning to junk food to fuel her body in 

between going to class and helping with her parents business.

Questions to Answer: 

1. Why do you think Mia is not feeling well lately?

2. If Mia were a Sac State student, what resources might she be able to tap into 

to help her start feeling better?

3. Describe the stress response that is occurring in Mia’s body. Is this acute or 

chronic stress? Or both? 

4. What other personal characteristics about Mia’s life situation make it difficult 

for her to manage stress? What about her lifestyle? 

5. What might you suggest to Mia for managing her stress better? Could she 

have prevented the current stress level that she is experiencing? 

6. How might the future of Mia’s family change as a result of her college 

degree? 

7. Other comments. 

8. Conclusion 

9. References