Scholarship / Scholarship application essay for a Masters in Global Health Sc and Epidemiology [3]

Global Health Sc and Epidemiology statement of purpose

Hi, I need feedback on my SOP for a scholarship to study Global Health Sc and Epidemiology. I am in the early stages of writing the SOP and any feedback to improve would be highly beneficial. Thanks!

Growing up in a country like India gave me a profound understanding of altruism and social equity. While my bent was always scientific and logical, social aspects crawled their way into my core beliefs. If I go down my memory lane, I can find various instances where our family was providing food to the less privileged kids or setting up stalls by the roadside, in the scorching heat of summer to offer cold flavoured milk to rikshaw pullers and other passers-by. Such instances introduced me to the problem of hunger. India is the world's largest producer of milk and the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables yet we are ranked 102 out of 117 countries on the Global Hunger Index. There is a glaring inconsistency about these realities. With this co-existence of abundance and hunger, it becomes painfully obvious that things don't seem to reason out with linear logic. I get fascinated by such enigmas within the public health system and my motivation lies in exploring solutions to such quandaries.

In my undergrad, I learned the science behind human nutrition. I studied subjects ranging from physiology to food-science and biochemistry. However, an elective I took in Mother and Child Nutrition radically altered my perspective. It introduced me to various health policies and programmes which shifted my attention from the health of an individual to that of the population. I felt as if I was sleep-walking until then and this new information had pulled me out of slumber and tossed me into the real world. With this newfound enthusiasm, I knocked at the doors of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to take permissions to study the ground-level implementation of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), a flagship programme to improve nutritional and early childhood development of children under 6. While visiting the Anganwadi Centres it became hard to ignore that while they were a short-walk away from each other, they were miles apart when it came to their conditions. One of them was in immaculate shape and many children were in attendance, at the same time the others posed with a raggedy infrastructure with hardly any children. This made me realise that a plan is only as successful as its implementation.

I stumbled across another valuable nugget of wisdom while planning and implementing a nutrition and health education programme for pregnant women residing in a low-income colony during my post-graduation. Majority of these women were unaware that they could benefit from various schemes designed by the government to cater to their needs. I could very easily understand how awareness played the role of an enabler in the dynamic between implementation and the success of a plan. Aside from the tremendous gain in my technical knowledge, the smile on the faces of the women after they had learned something new or the unmistakable confidence when they already knew something was truly heart-warming.

While science enhances our understanding of health more unambiguously and provides a much-needed myopic view of the world around us; Public Health Nutrition goes a step beyond that. I was able to gather that in the grand scheme of things, the economic policies, cultural backgrounds, and social frameworks all impact what people eat and subsequently their health. In this sense, public health acts as a bridge, connecting science and society.

One day, on my way back home, at the red light I saw through the car window, there was a family of three on the pavement; a small child, 4 or 5 years of age, with his parents encircling one small glass of tea. They were dipping glucose biscuits in the tea, one by one, sharing from one small packet. The child's elder brother was making his way towards them, carrying with him a newly bought 2-litre bottle of Fanta and a packet of chips from the money he had made begging. Bewildered, I thought to myself that this was perhaps an occasional indulgence, but soon I started noticing that the sight of roadside dwellers eating packaged food was quite common. This piqued my interest and I decided to understand the pattern of this behaviour. On one hand, cost constraint was an impediment to buying nutritious food but on the other hand, money was callously being spent on unhealthy packaged food. My master's thesis titled 'Assessing diet quality and cost of diets among adolescent urban slum dwellers of Delhi.' (in the process of publishing) reflected my quest to research this inconsistency.

While academics has been a significant part of my life, sport holds an equally important ground. I was introduced to table tennis at the age of 10 and went on to become the captain of my school team. Playing table tennis has been the best investment and an irreplaceable part of my life. The priceless lessons learnt have had a profound impact on my personality and my perspective on challenges. It has taught me the value of perseverance and fitness and the importance of working as a team.

My long-term goal is to explore more reliable solutions to the ever-persistent public health problems. I want to pursue M.Sc. in Global Health Science and Epidemiology as it acknowledges my core beliefs; science, altruism and social equity. I want to further continue with a D.Phil. in Population Health from the Nuffield Department of Population Health. I believe that logic can only go as far as one's knowledge and studying at Oxford will help me broaden my vision, equip me with new skills and enhance my knowledge. Factors such as classroom diversity, sharing of experiences and world-class teaching will further aid in the achievement of my goal. I got a chance to visit Oxford while on a family trip back in 2014 and since then it has been my dream to study at Oxford University and I believe that my academic background and the independent research that I've conducted has prepared me to study at Oxford and make meaningful contributions to the field of global health.