Graduate / "When it comes to public health.." SOP for a master in health management and policies [4]

The prompt is to write a statement of purpose (SOP) for about one to two pages long. The SOP will be addressed to a school of public health.

When it comes to public health, every body has his small story to tell. I am a survivor from a place where the life of my mother in delivery and I critically depended on the bicycle nearby to drive us to the nearest health center located 13 miles away. Public health problems such as HIV, lack of health infrastructure and professionals, malnutrition, unsafe water, malaria, tuberculosis surrounded me for 13 long years. Since the end of high school, I have made a resolution to assign my studies not only to make my living needs but also to dwindle the occurrence of such situation. After digging into the health fields, I realize that the implementation of an efficient health policy is the key solution. University...with its distinctive stamp, totally fit with my project.

Being a pharmacist has been an everlasting and valuable background to pursue this purpose but the more I practice, the more I realize that cost- effective solutions performed upstream could save more lives than treatments do. For instance, while working for ****, a pharmaceutical distributor company in ***, I participated in an action of donation to a starving population in Zinder and Maradi. It was heart breaking to see children weighting barely five pounds, just because resources and decisions have been managed in an inefficient and ineffective way. After, I managed a pharmacy in a rural area in ****, working with association of people living with HIV. For more than one year the whole country was in lack of antiretroviral drugs, just because the follow up process of the project was missed and funders decided to temporarily stop financing. I felt the insufficiencies in management with a great deal of sorrow because we lost a lot of lives from there.

Unlike my African experiences, public health issues I dealt with in U.S. concerned prescription drug coverage but still exhibit the relevance of an adequate health policy. In fact, working at CVS pharmacy gave me an overview of the complexity of Medicare, Medicaid issues, and insurance plans. These critical components of U.S. health system revealed to me the challenge of designing a perfect U.S. health care system. Overall, the international experience made me understand more the influence of economic and cultural differences on health. I believe the mastery of economic and cultural realities are critical to build an efficient policy in an area.

Once I am accepted into the graduate program, I will focus on economic, program planning development and management principles to perform health policy analysis. Professor***, talked to me about the connection of the department with organizations that address critical public health needs and the extension of the program to global health issues. I highly consider the partnership of the school with some universities in Africa. The cultural diversity of your students is for me a nurturing environment to enhance my future.

I picture myself in seven years as a university teacher with a PhD diploma in health policy. I will transmit my understanding of health policies to students who will in turn impact the access to health to individuals in the world. Further, I see myself owning a contractor company, an intermediate between not- for- profit organization and developing countries in Africa. Still in touch with my original school of public health, I will bring up the reality of global health issues. My strong knowledge in health policy will markedly serve developing countries designing efficient healthcare plan in order to touch as much population in need as I have ever dreamed. Profoundly confident in this project, I am already a member of collegiate entrepreneur organization (CEO), in which I am gradually strengthening my entrepreneurial skills.

My life experiences have called me to act in public health. My knowledge and experience in health, revealed to me the need to intensify my curiosity in health policy to move ahead. I effortlessly perceived that University of****with the osmotic change it has with public health organization will submerge my project to study, work, and ultimately, make a difference in public health field.

Writing Feedback / Toefl ibt writing Q2: University classes attendance, requirement or option ? [3]

Some people believe that university students should be required to attend classes. Others believe that going to classes should be optional for students. Which point of view do you agree with? Use specific reasons and details to explain your answer

Universities teach the high level academic education and some of them require their students to attend all classes while some leave it as an option.

In my view , classes should be optional to enhance students responsibility, to give them more flexibility and to get them more concentrated during their lessons. Following are supports reasons and examples to explicit this point.

First of all, optional attending strengthens students sense of responsibility and decision making. They choose to attend or not and the decision depends only on their judgment. This permanent exercise increases their awareness of responsibility. In doing so , the University will also increase their skill in decision making. For example, I attended two years program at Isis University in my country and classes attendance was an obligation. At the end I was still experiencing decision making problems. But one year after I began courses at Olade University it was very easy to make decisions as every day I had to make the best choice to fit my diary program.

Second, I believe optional classes gives more flexibility to students. Although students should focus on their area of study, having the possibility to express their talents in other university activities like sport , theatre could be really profitable not only to them but also the university. In case of attendance obligation a talented student could miss important events in such activities. My friend Mike is a very good soccer involved in our Sokode city champion's league. The day of the final match , we had mathematics courses scheduled and he was unable to participate but that could have been a great point in his soccer career and positive impact in his life.

Finally, students are more concentrated during courses in case there is no obligation. In this case, the student attends the class after making decision to listen to the professor and to use what material they came for. While compelled students sometimes have other priorities but attend classes by obligation. For this reason they could be less concentrated and disturb their classmates. For example , French course is required actually in my program. But many people don't like, so the class is really noisy during this course while other non required attendance courses are quiet and one can be focused on what the professor is saying.

The opportunity given by optional classes to strengthen the sense of responsibility, to have more flexibility, and more concentration during courses makes it better than obligation policy .