Tac Personal Statement

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” - Barack Obama It all started in the beginning of my freshman year when I started to volunteer at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. The volunteering experience opened and continues to open my eyes to the needs of my community and the many opportunities for community service. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital has been open for nearly 100 years. Not only does the staff dedicate their life to their work, but 100% of what they do is for the kids. Their mission is to protect and advance the health and well-being of children. Their vision is to be a leader in children’s health. Since October, I have been volunteering

Throughout my life, I’ve always had an immense interest in helping others. Being involved in the National Charity League for 5 years has given me the opportunity to be involved with charities that I otherwise would’ve never known about. I’ve had the privilege to help with over b charities in and around my community throughout my years as an NCL member. By far my favorite would have to be Grace’s Feed Our Kids that I have volunteered at every summer since my start in NCL. Through this charity, we are able to provide lunches and fun games to underprivileged kids in Grapevine during the unbearably hot Texas summer days. Each day we serve different meals, either donated from local restaurants or homemade by my NCL class, and have a variety of things for the kids to do, like coloring, water guns,

It was the sense of community and fulfillment that I experienced at my previous high school’s Interact club which motivated me to found Mountain House High School Interact, the first and largest community service organization at my

A few summers ago, I went on a mission trip to Costa Rica to help less-privileged children through my local YMCA. This experience changed my life forever. After this, I came to the realization that I wanted to combine my passion of philanthropy with a newly found passion that I developed while raising funds for the mission - business. With a degree in Marketing, a certificate in entrepreneurship, a minor in Sociology at UGA, I believe that I will be able to fulfill my dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.

Policy Leadership Fellowship position. I had the outstanding pleasure of working closely with Marvia for 3 years while we were both students in the Department of Applied Behavioral Science Department’s Behavioral Psychology program concentrating on Community Health and Development and joint Master of Public Health degree at the University of Kansas (KU). Over the 5 years that I have known her, Dr. Jones has been a thoughtful scholar and professional colleague, with an unequivocal focus on addressing health equity and social disparity across medically underserved

The greatest gift and most fulfilling action one can give is oneself in service to others. Guided by this principle, I am drawn to Martha’s Table’s mission and work in dignifying the needs of others and creating strong communities. Growing up on a family farm in North Dakota, three values my family deeply instilled in me were the value of food, education and relationships. My upbringing revolved around when to plant and harvest our fields and the effort it took to raise quality product. Education was of utmost important, particularly with my mother, grandmother and older sister being teachers. Through their example and teaching, a desire for continuous learning was formed within me. Finally, I was raised by the farm community my family lived

I have spent countless hours working as a volunteer with young people. As an undergraduate, I was a frequent volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club. I read the children stories, aided with homework, and participated in physical activities. This experience was gratifying and inspired me to an even bigger obligation. I traveled to New York, where I was a counselor at Camp AmeriKids, an organization for sickly and/or neglected youth. Through this organization, I unequivocally made an impact on the lives of these children. An unforgettable experience occurred on the last day at camp. The staff and I put together a slideshow to celebrate the campers’ accomplishments. It was astonishing how many of the children wept after the presentation. This experience made me aware of how meaningful my time was to these children. This exhibits how a marginal time commitment from an individual can mean the world to others. There is an old proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child”; I thoroughly believe this to be true. I was “latchkey” child raised by a single mother of six children. Since I did not have a great deal of guidance, I found role models in my coaches, teachers, and school counselors. Their time commitment to me may have appeared small to themselves at the time, but if not for these influential people, I would not be the first person in my family to attend and graduate college. I remain extremely proud of this

After graduating, I volunteered at the mobile pediatric free clinic, Kerry’s Kids, providing primary health care services to underserved children and their families in the San Francisco Bay Area. I took on one of the most satisfying roles of my life as the program coordinator, running clinics in seven shelters. I worked closely with pediatricians and nurses, who devoted their weeknights to providing medical care, and I was deeply moved by their dedication and compassion. The patients that came to the

I hope to be involved in improving how health care is delivered by identifying weaknesses in our current system and taking the initiative to improve them. As a medical student health advocate for a clinic at Lankenau Hospital, I learned to identify and address some of the non-medical barriers to health that patients experience. Learning that issues such as childcare responsibilities, education level, lack of transportation, and financial difficulties truly impede the ability for many to obtain adequate health care was eye opening and further reinforced my drive to help the

Being an active Greenport High School Interact Club member, I was selected to represent my school’s Interact Club. At the conference I had the joy of hearing Rotary leaders discuss the future of Rotary and amazing past successes. However, what really impacted me personally was meeting other Interact students from the island. Each student was a leader, basically everyone had stories of successful fundraiser or charities their Interact Club was involved with. Our Greenport Interact Club was very proactive already, but this conference shaped me into a more volunteer-minded person.Another great way the Rotary Conference let me practice being a leader was by giving me an opportunity to publicly talk about my school’s Interact Club and the fundraisers we had partaken

Most of my past volunteer experiences took place in a high school environment, where I had the opportunity to participate in events such as helping to: plan and execute the assembly of an outdoor classroom, prepare food and make beds for homeless individuals, and gather gifts and make cards for sick children in hospitals. I also am currently a part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peel's in-school mentoring program, where I have the pleasure of being a mentor to a ten year old girl. My volunteer experiences have taught me how to co-ordinate with teachers, peers, school administrators, and organizational officials. Also, because I have a mentally and physically disabled cousin, I have experience in dealing with special-needs youth; these experiences have taught me the many challenges such youth face, and how to be prepared for and how to deal with unexpected situations. I am comfortable with engaging with diverse groups of people, being vocal about social inequality, and taking the lead to make a

Throughout this experience I’ve gained a better sense of community. Being around people who wants to make a difference in their community, no matter how small, is truly gratifying. The little things make the greatest impact. It may not seem like much, but there’s bonding in everything. You haven’t bond with someone till you’re sorted through piles of clothes, toys, makeup, books, and that sang and dance afterwards. Not because we were done but because there was pizza, and we were happy that there was pizza. In the end, we all learned that giving back in important.

I’ve served in soup kitchens and saw the smiles on people’s faces but nothing has really shown me the huge impact I can truly make until I had the opportunity to travel to Baja California last Spring Break. Interact is a by product of Rotary, a community service club with a focus on international service. At the time I was president elect at the time selected the top 12 students with the most hours in service to travel on the trip. We had no idea what we would encounter, as it was the first international trip for the club in years. We worked with several communities that were struggling with problems that a majority of Americans would never have to face. The idea of moving away from home after high school can be a little scary for any teenager.

In the past years after I graduated CTA I was attending Academy of Art University, took Web Design as major. But very soon after that I started to party a lot and got into drugs which brought me a lot of problems. Then I decided to go and live in Spain so I could leave all that behind. I stayed in the Christian community where I was helping people to fight their problems. There I became fluent in Spanish.

My family, unlike most immigrant families, did not move to America because of the typical “American dream” of making more money or pursuing a higher education – it was due to the medical conditions of John, my youngest brother. John was born in Hong Kong with lung and heart-related problems, and he developed autism and ADHD at a very young age. It is a great stigma to have a disability in China. John wasn’t receiving the best health care in Hong Kong, and the education system didn’t provide any specialized program for students with disabilities. My parents love my brother so much that they quit their jobs and moved the family to Springfield, Massachusetts in 2004 to seek quality health care and education for him. Baystate Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital have gone above and beyond to treat John, and he is enrolled in a comprehensive special education program that will cover his tuition until he turns 21. When I told my parents I wanted to move to Pittsburgh to pursue a career in health care, they urged me with this, “Fight for quality health care for everybody, just like how we fought for John.”