The whole reason for me asking Dr. Imler if I could be a SDN writer was because I wanted to reveal the ups and downs, and just the overall journey of being a premed, especially a minority premed. That being said, I want readers to really walk with me as I go through this journey, which includes writing and rewriting my personal statement. For all those that dont know, the personal statement is your time to really shine in your application. Its the one part of your application where you can really show what makes you an unique candidate. Its basically supposed to answer the, “Why medicine” or the “Why do you want to be a doctor” question. So yeah, I wrote my personal statement cold in about 2 hours this summer while studying for the MCAT, so the personal statement Im posting today is my 1st rough draft. I do plan to make more edits to it, but I just wanted to show the process Im going through to get it to where I want it. Although I truly do appreciate comments concerning my personal statement, I hope you understand if I dont adopt all the advice Ill get. Its very hard to rewrite a personal statement with 30 different people telling you what you should change. Anyway, here it is: I’ve already graduated from medical school; I’m just reapplying to freshen up on some things. I know it’s hard to believe, because no one really wants to relive the stress of medical school, but I just don’t remember everything I learned. My mother was about 7 months pregnant with me, as she walked across the stage to accept our diploma from the Howard University School of Medicine. Needless to say, I don’t remember much because I was confined to her womb, but I am determined to catch up on all the pertinent information I missed.
When I contemplate the question of, “Why Medicine”, I realize that it can only be answered by explaining a combination of experiences that I’ve had. Ever since 1990, when my dad brought home our first personal computer, I’ve been a computer geek. By the time I got to high school I was teaching myself how to program, building computers, dabbling in amateur robotics, and looking into colleges with good engineering programs. I in no way contemplated medicine, because my mother was a doctor, and I wanted to be unique and I figured that I was better at computers than science. It all began with a summer program called MITHS at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine. It was a program that was supposed to attract minorities into the health field. For three weeks, we took medical school classes, and learned as much as we could. I was absolutely hooked by this program, and returned from California with a second love, medicine.
I was thinking of majoring in biomedical engineering, but I decided to keep the computer side of me a hobby and major in biology at Oakwood College. It turned out that I was actually pretty good in science, and my first year was very successful. During my freshmen year I joined a mission group called the National Association or the Prevention of Starvation (NAPS). It was in this group that I realized how satisfying it was to help someone without expecting anything in return. The smiles of gratitude I received were worth more than any grade or accolade I’ve earned. One experience in particular really solidified my desire to be a doctor. When I was in Zambia, Africa with NAPS, we were working in a United Nations refugee camp filled with refugees from Angola. About 60% of the kids there had ring worm, and it really broke my heart, because that is so easily treated if there were the funds to do it. The sand is very deep there and most of the kids don’t own any shoes. One day, as we walked to the Zambezi River with 150 people that wanted to be baptized, I saw one little boy fall to the ground in pain. Of course he didn’t have shoes, and he stubbed his toe very badly on a tree stump hidden by the sand. His toe was split open pretty badly, and was bleeding a lot. All I had was a Wal-Mart first-aid kit, so I took it out and start to clean his toe first with alcohol. He winced slightly, but then signaled with his eyes that I could continue. I cleaned everything off, and put a nice big band-aid around his toe. He tried to thank me in Portuguese, but when he realized I didn’t understand, he smiled, and that told me more than any words could. As he ran off towards the Zambezi, I sat there in awe. I realized that that was what it was all about. I wasn’t a big time surgeon yet, but I took the time to stop and help someone. As I walked away I realized that I wanted this feeling everyday. I wanted to wake up every morning whether it is in the rough streets of Baltimore or the plains of Africa, knowing that I could help someone that day.
That same summer, after Africa, I went to the University of Cincinnati to conduct research. The research was very exciting, and although I didn’t publish any papers, I did win 1st place in the category of Neuroscience for my poster at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students, the largest research conference for minority students in the world. I gained more than research experience at the University of Cincinnati; I was given the opportunity to shadow a surgery resident on the trauma part of his residency. He truly became a mentor to me and allowed me to see what the life of a trauma surgeon was really like. I saw gun shot wounds, stab wounds, car crash victims, emergency thoracotomies that couldn’t save the patient, suicide attempts, etc. I was also given the opportunity suture the chest of a patient that couldn’t be saved with a ED thoracotomy, I was taught out to anestisize a gun shoot wound, I was taught how to pull a chest tube, I assisted in the amputation of a car crash victim’s leg, I was shown how to remove scar tissue in laparoscopic surgery, how to check for a cardiac tamponade, how to examine a chest x-ray for signs of a pneumothorax, and a myriad of other things.
Needless to say, my experiences in the hospital were quite a bit more exciting than sitting in the research laboratory. Because all the doctors I shadowed were surgeons, I took quite a liking to them, and even started to walk like them! In all seriousness though, the clinical experiences at UC further reinforced my desire to become a physician, and sparked my interest in surgery.
All of these experiences have shaped me into the person I am now. The mission work has had the biggest effect on me, and I’m sure it will influence where I decide to practice. Medicine appeals to me not only because of the possibility of helping someone every day, but also because it presents intellectual and technical challenges every day. Also, as I’ve seen so far, doctors get to play with lots of computers and technical equipment, which rekindles the computer geek inside me! Apart from being academically qualified, I believe that my passion for mission work will make me a very caring physician; a physician that views their patient as more than a case, or a leg, but a person. I know that medicine is the only field that fits for me, and once I go back to medical school to relearn some things, I know I will do the field justice.
CHARACTER COUNT w/ spaces (not including line breaks)- 5,971
So yeah, that’s what I got right now. I already know a couple of things I think I need to change. First off I need to be less verbose and get my character count down to 5,300 characters. I like my 1st paragraph, but I do agree that it could use a little tweaking, but in terms of content, I think it catches the readers attention and it might even draw a chuckle. I also think that I might want to shorten my second paragraph and focus more on my mission work paragraph. Anyway, I’m still thinking of it. Once again, comments and advice are well but please don’t be mad at me if I don’t heed your advice.
In other news, life is good. I’m getting senioritis, and I’m still in my 1st semester of my junior year, so I’m really trying to motivate myself. Mammalian anatomy is getting fun, especially since Dr. Hiller (a retired internist, D.O.) has been teaching some of the lectures and giving us real life applications.
Oh also, this past Sabbath, we brought a bunch of kids from the projects (like 40) to our college to see what its like and to hold children’s programs there. Usually we hold children’s programs out where they live, but we wanted to show them what their future could be if they just stayed on the right path and continued to seek Jesus. The kids really enjoyed everything but some things kind of made me sad. Most of the kids were young, like 8 years old and younger, but one of the older ones, Edward (13 yrs old) was telling me that he was really tired. I asked him why and he told me that he had been up all night trying to keep his brother from being shot. A bunch of guys got mad at their father and were trying to take it out on his brother by shooting him; they had their guns out and everything. These are things that a 13 yr. old shouldn’t have to deal with, but many are. It almost makes you feel if as if they don’t have a chance; but hopefully the work we are doing will show them a better future. Anyway, I think I’ve written enough. Peace.
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