Why you are choosing to pursue a career in medicine

Paper instructions:
Essay for scholarship requirements.
Eligibility: A student pursuing a career in the medical field is invited to submit a one-page essay.

Essay Question: Please tell us why you have chosen your career path. Some topics discussed may include:
€¢What inspired you to select the medical/healthcare area you are pursuing?
€¢Was there a particular incident in your life or a person who had a significant impact?
€¢Why do you want to spend two to six years of your life at a particular college, graduate school, or professional school?

Student background information:
– High School Senior
– Looking to be admitted to a pre-med or dual bs/md program
– Resume

I. Medicine Career Related Activities:

Mini-Med Program at UMDNJ Newark, NJ
A mini medical program that lasted eight weeks that is designed to acquaint students with many issues in contemporary medical practices. Students sit in seminars and discuss topics such as: nutrition, diabetes, flu, gastrointestinal, brain and drugs, vital sign, cardiovascular, and cancer. Students also attended lectures given by well-renowned doctors on topics such as: pathology, hypnosis in medicine, oral facial pain, diabetic foot, dermatology, stem cells, and alternative medicine.

Summer Scholars Science Academy at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Piscataway, NJ
A four-week summer program that exposed students to what medical students learn and do in medical school. Topics are explored, such as: anatomy and physiology, research methods in medicine, first aid, women’s health, and patient centered medicine. Alongside these classes, students experience a dissection of a cadaver and learn about different topics that are being researched. Students are required to create a poster on a disease that they have researched and present it in a symposium.

Biotechnology course at the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at Johns Hopkins University
An intensive study of biotechnology, covering such topics as Mendelian inheritance, probability, DNA structure, replication, transcription, and translation. In aIDition, this knowledge was applied in recombinant DNA technology. Lab work included isolating the DNA molecule from common bacteria and splitting genes using restriction enzymes. Other tasks conducted were gel electrophoresis, model polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and examining DNA vaccines.

II. Community Service:

Projects Abroad Volunteer
A two week volunteer program in Mandeville, Jamaica where volunteer work was done at the local health clinic, Mandeville Health Clinic and Percy Junor Hospital. At these two locations, volunteer work was done in the maternity ward, pharmacy, women’s and men’s wards, the and Outpatient Department (OPD). This program exposes people to the health care system of a developing country.

EMS Volunteer
Volunteered at the Township Emergency Medical Service. Rode alongside EMTs on calls and helped them on the scene by checking for vital signs and heart pressure.

Nursing Home Volunteer
Volunteer at a nursing home . Assisted the staff in entertaining the residents, as well as feeding and helping to move them from one location to another.