Medical School Personal Statement

As a recipient of this scholarship, I would like to contribute to the mission of the NHSC by providing an environment where patients feel that they are welcomed, a priority, and receiving high quality healthcare. This is important because the large patient demands found in clinics in underserved areas create an environment where patients receive less face-to-face time with their doctors, provided they get seen at all. Because I have the work ethic and compassion to make a difference in underserved areas, I believe that I would be a helpful addition to any clinic. Bringing caring healthcare professionals into communities will allow more patients to receive quality care as well as impact these areas by allowing everyone to live healthier, more

“What are you even doing here? I have never seen such flawed technique in all my years as a choreographer.” The words echoed throughout the medical college auditorium. Impelled by the admonishment in front of my peers, I persevered in my endeavor to improve upon my dancing prowess and by the final year of medical school was leading the college dance team. The above mentioned undertaking further spawned an interest for the discipline of Latin Ballroom which lead to participation at the national level. The unwavering focus and persistence even in the face of unfavorable odds is more broadly reflective of my approach towards learning, both academic and extracurricular. This has been instrumental in achieving stellar academic outcomes including being ranked nationally in the top 0.0004 percent in the premedical test and the top 0.6 percent in the common aptitude test for management training.

Being from rural Appalachia, I know that the inequalities in medicine are high and prevent many from seeking regular medical attention. Early in my life, I saw my friends, neighbors, and loved ones hesitate to seek medical attention due to economic reasons and the inability to access medical care.

This summer I will be joining East Carolina University's chapter of Medical/Dental Brigades in Honduras. Much of the population in Honduras is living in poverty and therefore living conditions are poor and the country is extremely medically underserved. The Medical Brigades will have the opportunity to provide services that the population is currently not used to having for a whole week. While in Honduras, we will be working with members of the community and providing health care services in areas such as: triage, doctor consultation, dental, OBGYN, pharmacy, and more! Aside from providing health care, the medical brigades will also be participating in a public health project to help the community become sustainable. An example of this would

Wide reaching, nurses significantly outnumbered physicians as providers of health care often having utmost vast reach remoteness to underserved communities. Having personally lived in one of the underserved communities in my hometown Western Africa before moving to the United States of America and my life calling to be a nurse from a young age with the deep desire to make a difference. I plan to contribute and continue to contribute immensely to the underserved communities by delivering quality health care to remote regions around the world. I do volunteer service at several clinics in the Atlanta area with many well-known Emory physicians that care for homeless and underserved populations, these volunteer experiences provide me with opportunities and fulfillment to develop added headship skill and experience to meet my daily patients, needs.

I am interested in joining the Medical Professions Academy, because I believe it would be a great experience. This program will give me the inside look of what being a doctor is like that high school would not provide for me. I have been interested in going into a medical profession for a few years and I think MPA will help me decide where I want to go with it. While I may go a different route I think MPA will give me something I can't find at my high school. I was really interested in the hands on learning portion and believe it will help me with my future occupation. I am excited for the opportunity to joint MPA next year.

Preparing myself for residency, I am gaining significant US clinical experience in a hospital setting with a good understanding of the current standard of care. This experience has also given me a good insight into the ethics, medico-legal dilemmas, economics, and other aspects of medicine that go beyond the science of medicine that play a role in the US health system. It also gives me an opportunity to interact with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds which is educational and enjoyable.

Limping out of the court with a twisted ankle, I winced in pain. As the main player of the university Table-Tennis team, I was determined not to let my team’s effort go in vain. The final match was two days away and I decided to focus on my strengths- my backhand chop, as opposed to only concentrating on my opponent’s weakness. As I was getting my foot examined, my coach remarked, “The pain of regret is greater than the fear of failure”. This thought comes back to me today as I prepare to apply for my Internal Medicine Residency in the United States.

I hope to gain a better perspective of what it takes to be in the medical field. I understand that the program allows us to observe patient care in the emergency department of Grady Hospital. I believe it’s an amazing opportunity to see all the obstacles in managing patient care first hand. There are many patients who are hit with a medical condition or disaster that have low incomes. With my family’s history of low income and the amount of medical conditions they had to face it would be great to have a better understanding of what they went through. Despite growing up and being exposed to the medical issues my family continuously faced I never truly understood what any of the procedures or how the hospitals worked. Being able to talk with

If someone told me just five years ago when I was in high school that I would be going to one of the best colleges in New Jersey and taking classes in an effort to go to medical school, I would've said they were crazy. In fact, I'm not, nor have I ever been the student with a 4.0 GPA or near perfect standardized test scores. As a future candidate to medical school, I feel that this Research Associates Program will aid in my journey to becoming a doctor, by virtue of working with other people, interacting with patients, gathering data, and understanding how to accurately obtain valuable data.

Unlike other medical students, I never had one particular defining moment that changed my life but from a very young age I had set myself to becoming a doctor, but not just any doctor, a surgeon. Therefore, instead of just one determining event, many events helped propel my dream, with medical school being the beginning of much more I hope to achieve.

I wish, that I was the top person in gymnastic class. I wish, I could be the best on the balance beams and won’t hurt myself. I wish, the bars weren’t so hard to flip around. I wish, I could do a back flip and have the best flips there is. I wish I didn’t have a fear of flipping. I wish, to go to the Olympics and have all perfect scores.

The word “painting” has always had more meaning to me as a verb than a noun. Since I first began oil painting when I was 16, I taught myself the techniques of the old masters and the ins and outs of creating a piece; I have learned much more about the art and about myself than I thought I would. Sometimes, the process of painting is more beautiful than the final product. Laying down the initial blocks of color is sometimes more exciting and invigorating than finishing a piece by adding that last dot of fat white paint on an eye, bringing the face to life. Through painting, I have gained an appreciation of “process over product”, a concept that has been the foundation of my desire to pursue a career in medicine.

The world of science and biomedical research has always fascinated me. And throughout the years, due to volunteering at local hospitals and taking every single science course available at school (yes, I’m guilty of being a geek), my passion for the profession has only ever increased. At LifeScape, a home for intellectually and developmentally disabled children, I started mentoring a complete stranger- someone who would later become one of my closest friends. Her name was Justina. At the age of four, she was involved in an automobile accident that left her paralyzed and on a part-time ventilator. Despite her strong and nearly lifelong battle for survival, however, Justina passed away. This experience was the first time I truly envisioned myself in the medical profession because, despite all the efforts put into saving Justina’s life, she ultimately lost her battle.

“Medical schools and residency programs have always sought excellence in the areas of education, research, and clinical care. However, these pursuits are not accomplished within a vacuum-rather, they are continually and necessarily influenced by social, cultural, political, legal, and economic forces” (Conrad). The quote by Conrad is a statement that perfectly explains the demand for excellence in the medical community. The demand for excellence is in constant flux as medicine is engulfed by bureaucracy. This take over subjects the pillars of the profession to constant challenges. The most recent challenge to the medical professions jurisdiction was, once again, one to the professions standards of expert knowledge. Since 2014, the states of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas created some loopholes to allow students who have not matriculated into a residency to begin working as a “physician” with various titles such as the Graduate Registered Physician (GRP) in Arkansas, Assistant Physician in Missouri, and Training Physician in Oklahoma. These loopholes are being forced into the medical profession through political powers who have no medical backgrounds to be able to make such drastic judgment calls. Despite heavy opposition from AMA, the American Academy of Physician Assistants(AAPA), and other state accrediting boards, these bills have passed and have gone into laws. Many of the opposing physicians argued that these less qualified students are treating patients up to