Tu Luong Medical Mission Foundation (TLF) was established in 1992 by Tan Lam when he was a graduate student at Dartmouth Medical School in honoring of his mother and father Tu and Luong, respectively. Both Tu and Luong passed away in Vietnam on the same day just of couple hours apart. Tu Luong means ‘from the heart’ in Vietnamese and “help, relief, assistance, aid, and support” in Tagalog (tulong/tulugan). TLF’s first purpose was to organize medical teams to provide free medical services to Vietnamese refugees in Southeast Asia. When the last Vietnamese refugee camp closed, TLF reincorporated in Washington State in 1998 to support medical missions and education.
To support our mission, TLF established Seattle Mini Medical School (SMMS) in 2019. SMMS is approved by Washington State Board of Education to provide a full grades 6-12 curriculum that focuses on STEM, Medicine, and Medical Mission. SMMS is designed for students who are serious about pursuing a career in medicine. SMMS provides a way to expose high school students to the basic science of medicine and clinical skills very early in their education. Our medical mission program provides students with clinical skills that instill compassion and help students understand the true meaning of medicine and service.
SMMS is a blended learning school using both traditional and online classrooms. Online classrooms allows us to bring doctors, guest lecturers, or experts from anywhere in the world to the classroom using Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.