Whether our life choices are influenced by new ambitions or family traditions, Gloria Cheng (N, W ‘25) chooses to balance both. While her family history shapes the way she engages with community, her new experiences and aspirations simultaneously propel her to explore and innovate in the fields of maternal health and obstetrics. From beekeeping on campus to exploring how nutrition can be medicine, Gloria finds creative ways to merge her heritage with her aspirations—never wasting a moment to learn, connect, and contribute to communities of care and cuisine.
Name: Gloria Cheng
Hometown: Jericho, N.Y.
Major: Nursing and Healthcare Management
Minor: Nutrition
Activities: Penn Beekeeping, Penn Appétit, Common Cents, Resident Advisor, Quaker Fellow, Asian Pacific American Nursing Student Association, Wharton Undergraduate Consulting Club, Teaching Assistant of NURS 3520.
Tell us about beekeeping; how did you first get into it?
My start with beekeeping is actually really funny. I have distant relatives who like beekeeping in their backyard, and they would occasionally give us gallons of honey. I really love honey. So, coming to Penn, I was like, “How can I get my next honey fix?” Then I found Penn Beekeeping, and it turned out that the year before, they had gotten bees for the first time. Prior to that, they would mostly admire the bees at work, which is cool, but not as cool as actually having bees. Bees had been ordered and shipped over in a box. Tens of thousands of bees were unpacked to establish our hive. When the weather is nice, every week, other board members or I take a group of 67 students, get suited up, and visit the hive. We go in and do hive maintenance. I really like bees because they're such an amazing society. They're democratic, and they communicate in such unique ways. They're also a matriarchy. They kick out all the men when things aren’t going well, like when it gets cold. Unfortunately, most bees don’t make it through the winter. On average, I think in Pennsylvania, 40% don’t make it—which is why we close the hive during the winter, don’t open it to visitors, and only go in to feed the bees.
What has contributed to your culinary interests and what have you taken away from them?
My interest in food stemmed from being the daughter of immigrants who made really, really good food. My grandma and grandpa cook so well, and they immigrated here from China back in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Coming to America during a time when there was discrimination and the Chinese Exclusion Act, their way to earn citizenship was through a talent visa. In my grandfather’s case, through cooking talent. So he worked very hard and diligently in restaurants. He came to America much earlier than all the family. Working in very bad environments, he eventually was able to save up and get my mom, my uncle, and my grandma, to America. Eventually after a lot of hard work, he was able to actually open up restaurants. Growing up, I was the recipient of all that amazing food. One of my favorite things that my grandpa would make for me is clam chowder, and one day I asked him, “How do you make this?” This amazing family heirloom recipe, he then told me, “YouTube.”
My grandfather came from a very poor family, and then came to America seeking the American dream for a better life for my parents and future generations. I think that's really where my hard work ethic comes from.
It was really important for me to find communities where I could be around food and being around people who really want to explore food spaces, cuisines, and experience different cultures in Philadelphia. This is why I joined Penn Appétit sophomore year. We have a magazine, create recipes, and host dinner parties.
Other places I've really enjoyed finding food here at Penn: I got a job at Quaker Kitchen as its Quaker fellow, and so I help out with cooking classes every Wednesday evening. We get really cool chefs from New York and Philly and try new cuisines. For example, we had a class where they brought in at least 100 oysters, and we were just tasting different types. I shucked so many oysters that day that my thumb really hurt after. On that line of really liking food, that's actually why I ended up pursuing a nutrition minor. I really enjoyed seeing the connection of food as medicine. So that's about how if you're early enough in the disease process, your food can really impact your health, and can maybe even cure you. Nutrition is learning about how to optimize your health, how to help communities, and how to help your own community to be able to achieve its best.
Tell us about your experience as a dual degree student in Nursing and Wharton (a rare program)?
My freshman fall, Dr. [Diane] Spatz, who is a professor here at Penn, gave a presentation on the impacts of breastfeeding on the economy and how not breastfeeding is costly. Costing hundreds of billions of dollars of deadweight loss and loss of productivity and health in many economies. And I was like, “Wow. That is crazy.” I think that was the first time my Nursing and Wharton degrees were being meshed together.
I am also very grateful, I got to enroll in many cool and different courses. Through Penn, I've been exposed to so many more people, and so many more experiences. I was able to do three study abroad experiences. In Italy, I did a class on deaf rights. I was also able to go to Thailand, which was for a comparative health class to learn about its health care system. I was also able to do a summer in Australia, where I did research on breastfeeding and lactation at this lactation lab. Next, I'm going to Spain in May for another comparative health class for nursing. I've learned so much from these experiences. For example, in my Italian class, I learned Italian sign language to be able to communicate while also learning about the legislative system of Italy. In Thailand, I was able to learn about how it is the No. 2 destination in the world for medical tourism, as it has universal health care, but it has so much foreign tourism. I got to observe how it grapples with all these different factors.
So for context, I grew up in Long Island, which is super segregated. Therefore there were many disparities in health outcomes in different communities. Which is why, going into college, I was actually interested in public health, with the idea of potentially doing policy. However, after my experiences at Penn, I have fallen in love with the component of administering and giving care.
How did your interest in breastfeeding manifest itself in your life?
I came across an opportunity through Wharton, to subsidize research opportunities at a destination abroad, with the condition that you find this opportunity on your own. I wanted to know how I could get involved. I went to see Dr. Spatz, the professor who gave the breastfeeding lecture my freshman year, and the first thing she said was “Do you want to go to Botswana or Australia?”
I love Dr. Spatz. So I ended up going to Australia, because they have a Premier Lactation Group in the world. They do a lot of research and development for a lot of tech for breastfeeding. There, I was able to do research on breastfeeding and support post–cesarean. I was able to work two months in Australia and ever since I have continued remotely. Actually, last month, I was able to go to an international conference to present my research.
It's been a journey, but I've learned so much. Breastfed babies have a stronger immune system. Breastfeeding is good for economies because the child is less likely to be sick and the parent is less likely to get called out from work. So, it impacts the entire family. The mom also has a lower risk of getting reproductive cancer. The child is more likely to have higher IQ, higher EQ, and better attachment style with the mom. I actually recently matriculated into the nursing graduate program here, which is focused on women's health.
What has been a formative experience in your time here at Penn?
It is a funny story from my second day of clinicals. I was there to provide therapeutic communication, which is support through talking to the patient during labor. So it was very early in the morning, probably, like, 6–7 a.m., the patient's husband was sleeping. It was just me and the patient talking. She wasn't progressing very quickly, so they had just left us alone. My patient told me “I feel pressured,” and I said, “You cannot feel pressure.” Two seconds later, there's a baby in my hands. The baby shot out like a rocket. So that was a really, really formative experience. At that moment I thought, “Birth is freaking amazing.” A path I envision for myself, coming back to Penn, is being able to do women's health or midwifery and care for women and babies.
I'm a Chinese American. We have special postpartum practices that many parts of the world have as well. So for us, it's called 坐月子(zuò yuè zi) which means “sitting the month.” It basically means a month of confinement at home. Confinement sounds really bad, but it's actually just being at home, having your family take care of you, eating foods that promote your healing, and promoting your milk production. So in the past, it was really strict. You were not supposed to use A/C or shower for the month. Now it's not as strict, it's about making sure you're comfortable. You just went through a major life–changing situation, so you need to take time to recover. I'd really like to help moms recover.
Lightning Round:
Your motto in life?: Try everything.
Favorite course you took?: NURS 5350: "Comparative Health: Thailand"
A song you’ve recently enjoyed?: "Sports car" by Tate McRae
What would your alternate ego be studying?: She would be in culinary school.
What would your sixth sense be?: Whether or not someone was breastfed.
There are two types of people at Penn … preprofessional ones and not–preprofessional ones?
And you are? In the middle.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Do you know that one senior who brings a smile to everyone’s face or always has the craaaaziest stories? It’s time to give them the recognition they deserve. Ego of the Week seeks to showcase seniors not for their grades or any other fake academic construct, but for who they are as a person and the joy they bring to the people around them! Nominate your favorite Penn seniors for Ego of the Week!
