My Life After My Mother

I began volunteering at the Hope Line Resource Center to assist those in the community. This way I could assist with helping people become healthier to avoid facing the same situation my mother was in. Furthermore, I volunteer in health fairs to spread awareness of the ways people can put their body in a healthier state with Urban Health Plan. I wanted to do this to increase the community’s knowledge of how they can take control of their health. I eventually became an intern in the clinic with Urban Health Plan to have a chance to get involved in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) department and to collaborate with pediatricians to further understand the healthcare field. What happened to my mother motivated me to get involved, which eventually taught me that we all have the ability to take care of

When I first began my college career in 2011, I was a first generation college student. I entered into college with only a vague goal of becoming a Physician’s Assistant. The most common question I was asked was why? Why a Physicians Assistant? And I my answer was always the simple standard answer of: “I want to help people”. I, undeniably, still want to help others but it was not until the Christmas of my sophomore year, that I truly understood what it meant and took to be a successful Physician’s Assistant. A few days after Christmas my mother was hospitalized for two and a half weeks with a continuous blood clot in her leg and a small blood clot in her lungs. She spent the first 3 days in ICU, required multiple blood and iron transfusions, and eventually surgery. For me, the worst part of the entire experience was being awakened in the middle of the night by nothing more than the faint whisper of my name. Till this day, I don’t know how I heard it. My mom had collapsed on the stairs in excruciating pain. She was extremely weak and unable to move. I thought I was watching my mother die, and the immediate fear and panic that I felt, still haunts me sometimes. I didn’t know what to do or what was

I became captivated by the opportunity to apply my knowledge of the biological and chemical sciences in a way that one day may save a life. Though my interest stems from my experiences, my passion to pursue this field lies elsewhere. Growing up in a family of low socioeconomic status in an area with few sources of acceptable health care, I saw my parents struggle as they aged to provide my siblings and I with a proper education. There were times they would ignore their own illness in order to save funds for an emergency for us. Observing this, I knew that no matter how difficult of a path I picked, regardless if it was pharmaceutical sciences or the medical field, my parents had concurred greater difficulties. Growing under such conditions, I began to realize the disparities in quality of treatments my parents received compared to those who of a higher socioeconomic status. This motivated me to pursue a career where I would be given the chance to offer care to individuals through unbiased views. Of course, there are a plethora of careers that can fulfill this but medicine has presented itself as very unique to me. It promises a lifestyle devoted to empathetic patient care, direct patient interaction, and a boundless opportunity to learn and experience something new. As the end of my undergraduate experience is forthcoming, I look forward to taking on the next phase of my life, endeavoring to join the ranks of tomorrow’s

About seven years ago, my family had to rush my grandpa multiple times to the hospital since his liver cancer kept acting up. Almost every time he had to wait outside of the hallway since the hospital was totally out of room. Even more ironic, we had to pay extra fees for his room to wait for the doctor's check up. While I was waiting with my dad in the hallway, I complained about how unfair it was for grandpa. With a stressful sigh, dad rubbed my head and told me that how life is in the third world country. This was a tough reality to accept. After my grandpa's death, the drama did not stop there for my family. My 40-year-old uncle also passed away leaving his wife and 2 children due to liver cancer. The gloominess was dragging over the whole family for years. It was obvious that my grandpa and uncle's situations were just ones of many cases that needed professional medical assistance. Those two events have sparked in me a need to take part in changing this sad reality in the current world, specifically in the medical

I was born in a small town in Sudan, where there are limited resources for people to receive medical care. When my grandfather required hospitalization for severe dehydration and the experience of pain and the hardship of travel just for him to receive IV fluid and seeing him subsequently improving thereafter made me realize how the doctors can have a great impact upon someone’s life, not just their physical self but their emotional self as well. My grandfather falling ill made me question the fact that without our health we are nothing. I therefore decided to go into the field of medicine to better people’s lives.

Caring for others has always been a passion of mine. Whether it be caring for my younger brothers as we grew up as orphans, or volunteering in underprivileged or poverty-stricken countries, it has always brought me great satisfaction to serve others. Even as a young girl from Ghana, West Africa I knew I couldn’t become anything else but a nurse. As a child my mother become very ill and was admitted at our local hospital, where I witnessed the nurses attending to my mother with great care. These nurses went above and beyond to provide my mother with the ultimate care. These observations have helped shaped me into the nurse I am today.

Since I was a little girl, I have always wanted to go into the medical field. Through watching movies, going to the doctor’s office, and the pharmacy I had made up my mind that I wanted a job which involved helping people. This became my goal — to pursue a career that would allow me to save lives. I vacillated

Growing up in a small town named Bethel, which was close to the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; I developed the passion to help others. I was not exposed to the city like most of my friends so I spent my free time at home assisting my family with household chores like washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning. The everyday service that I provided for my family helped me experience the gratification that comes from serving people. The times I spent assisting my grandmother sparked my interest in the field of medicine. When my grandmother was diagnosed with diabetes, we were in need of care taker. Since we couldn’t afford to hire a professional care taker, my older sister and I were given the responsibility to look after her. However,

It was when my mother was rush to emergency room due to a chest pain that started my interest in wanting to help people live a healthier future. I remember my mother’s frustration because she could barely speak English a0nd was unable to communicate to the nurse. As a bilingual child, I would help translated the level of pain, comfort, and her concerns to the nurse. While I accompanied her in the hospital, I valued the amount of strenuous work and responsibilities that nurses have to uphold. Knowing that there was a language barrier, I admired how the nurses never showed any signs of frustration, but remained calm and collective. Being by my mother’s side, demonstrated how I myself could make a positive impact in someone’s life one day. The

I have always wanted to become a nurse. As a child, I always looked forward to my grandmother coming home and telling me all the stories from the day. Whether it was a good or a bad outcome, her stories at the hospital were always an inspiration to me. When I was 8 years old, I traveled to Ecuador with my grandparents on a public health mission trip. We took food, clothing, toys, medications, and first aid supplies to distribute to the community in Quito. While there, I realized the distinct hardships that underserved populations around the globe face. This is where my love for nursing heightened, and my knowledge of public health emerged.

I can still remember vividly the day my mother passed away. My mother passed away at a critical point in my life when I was seventeen years old from a short term illness. She was sick for a week and I remember thinking this could be serious, however, my mother declined to go to the hospital because of the distance and financial hardship. I had loss my father when I was three years old, so my mother was a single mother. I have step sisters and brother, but I was not particularly close to them. Losing my mother was a defining moment in my life for it changed my life irrevocably. I was devastated, but I had to become strong, proactive and it spurred me to choose a new career path.

Though she could not finish nursing school because she had her second child, her love for science and medicine did not fade. She worked in a hospital for several years while taking care of 3 children on her own. She then got her master’s in Healthcare management where she then pursued a career in clinical research. Within 4 years she became a level 3 clinical research associate where she will potentially become a Clinical research director of all CRA’s. My mother knew that helping people with illnesses was her passion and though she did not finish nursing school, she was not about to let that stop her from helping people. “Surgeons, doctors, nurses, PA’S, and health administrators are not the only people that help the ill, clinical researcher’s do as well”, she said. “We are a branch within the health field that regulates the safety and efficacy of treatment, medications, and diagnostic products intended for people to use.” Throughout my life, my mother taught me to follow my dreams and whatever I did to always find a way to help the world for the better. Ever since then, my dream was to follow in my mother’s footsteps and potentially be in charge of a hospital or clinic.

From an early age, I was exposed to medicine through my father, a radiologist, and as I grew, the influence of his career naturally and inevitably tailored my interest. It has been my own desire, however, that has compelled me to pursue a career in medicine. The summer after my sophomore year in high school, my family took a trip to our native town in India. For two months, I volunteered at the Charity Foundation in India, and the experiences I had there resonated deeply in me, changing my perspectives forever. More than my duties, the simple daily exposure transformed me permanently. These experiences with the Charity Organization and Mother Teresa herself showed me medicine in a light I might not have seen back home in Texas or elsewhere, gave me a new understanding to a physician�s role in society, and set forth my pursuit for a career in medicine.

My story began when I received shocking news that my grandfather has passed away from a heart failure. Being a twelve years old immigrant, bilingual of Vietnamese American, I fully experienced the hardship of caring for a very ill family member. Unfortunately, my grandfather passed away. The feelings of emptiness consumed my inner being. He was one of my closest family members and was there to raise me. I felt completely helpless and powerless, unable to prevent my grandfather from passing away. I became frustrated and started to ponder if the turn of events would have been any different. If I had better insight to what medical care had to offer, I could have been able to advise my grandfather about his condition and perhaps his problem may have been preventable. I vowed that I would become a competent doctor to find the reason behind my grandfather 's death and to make a real impact on this real life situation. I am determined to succeed.

The one factor that has shaped me more than anything is my family; specifically my mother. My mom is the strongest person I know, and she has been through absolute hell, but despite that, she has remained a loving, caring, and helpful person. It is because of my mother that I have strived to have these same qualities if not more. After the death of her husband, the biological father of my siblings, my mother raised three children by herself. My father was never in my life and still isn’t to this day. I was five years old when my mom’s husband and the only father I ever knew was taken from us. While he was trying to protect his family; he was gunned down in a home invasion. To this day I can remember the look on my mother's face when she picked me up and with tears streaming down her face told me that my father had died. The next couple of days were a blur as she packed us up and moved us from Pennsylvania to Virginia and then again to North Carolina. Years later I asked her why she did this and she said she thought the best place for us would be around family. She didn’t move back to a family that she rarely got along with for her, but because she knew that after losing our father we had a hole in our life that could only be filled with the love that family can offer.