Motivation LETTER
Dear Members of the Consortium & Selection Committee,
I, XYZ would like to take this opportunity to express my interest in applying for the Europublichealth+ European Masters in Public Health under Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Degree (EMJMD) Programs. My research interest being interdisciplinary in nature revolves around climate and environmental impact on public health, thus I am particularly interested in the Environmental & Occupational Health specialization in the second year of the program.
I recently embraced a huge career change from dental science to an entirely disparate field of climate science and policy. My decision was party driven by my passion towards the environment and partly by my climate anxiety, but I have made a conscious decision to work towards a sustainable future. On a daily basis, I am fueled to work on myself and my life choices including my career to help make a positive change. And being from health science background, I wish to work towards sustainability with a multidisciplinary approach that connects the two distinct fields of public health and climate & environmental science. My specific interest is in the research topic surrounding climate, aerosols, and human health in urban cities.
Previously, during my bachelors, I have studied biostatistics and epidemiology under Public Health in Dentistry course in my fourth-year. During my masters, I have taken many general courses like Environmental Statistics, Environmental Law & Policy, Impacts of Climate Change, Economics of Climate Change & Geoinformatics, all of which have helped enhance my research acumen. In relation to public health, during my second semester in the course of climate change vulnerability and adaptation, my final project topic was Impact of climate variability on health of food delivery personal in the Delhi, where we designed a climate vulnerability index which included various aspects like temperature, humidity, precipitation and air quality and a survey format for accessing the adaptation practices used by the local delivery persons to combat climate variability. During my third semester course of multivariate analysis, my final presentation was a literature review on the multivariate technique like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Positive Matrix factorization (PMF) used for source apportionment & health risk assessment of organic matter in fine ambient aerosols (PM2.5) over Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region). During the same semester, I had taken Aerosol science, in which I learnt comprehensively the methodology used to study aerosols, including practical knowledge for running online trajectory and dispersion models like HYSPIT (The Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model) using GADS (Global Aerosol Data Set) by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) data for determining the direction and origin of aerosols over a region. The final presentation for Aerosol science was understanding the role of Festival of Diwali on Particulate Matter (PM2.5) emission in the city of Mumbai. Such tools & techniques are useful in determining the direction of the aerosols with their component breakdown which can help understand the source of the emission, that can be used to make better and more comprehensive policy decisions over a region. Most of my research projects were around the niche research area of Environmental Health Science and study of research methodologies used in the field.
In terms of cultural integration and program mobility, I consider myself to be adaptable, and quite capable of learning new skills. Even though my language of delivery will remain English throughout the program, I have elementary qualification in French language, which will come in handy for my second-year choice of specialization in Environmental & Occupational Health at Paris. I have been learning French since my high school years and have recently gained my DELF A2 certification, which I plan to upgrade to next level soon. I have also tried learning other languages like Spanish and Korean at some point, as I like to learn new languages. Also, previously having held a leadership position in the college student council during my bachelors, I have good management skills to work individually, as well as the experience required for working as a team.
Having studied such diverse coursework at my previous institutions, I have gained adequate knowledge on different research areas but lack an in-depth understanding of public health research required for taking up an academic & research career for pursing my doctorate studies, which is my planned future career path. Currently I am working as an Analyst in the Impact Measurement & Advisory team at Sattva Consulting, that works with various Private and Non-profit organizations on different developmental, humanitarian, and sustainable projects. Due to familial obligations and financial constraints, I have not been able to work full-time on my career goals, which is the primary reason for applying to Erasmus Mundus Programs. The program can help give me a push towards the career that I want to pursue and in-turn I can work on major environmental issues of the Anthropocene.
I would consider myself fortunate if I get this opportunity of studying at such esteemed and top ranked institutions in Europe, especially in the field of public health. Considering my earnest interest and perseverance, I hope you will see me as a deserving candidate for the program. If given a chance, I assure you that I will work tirelessly to realize my goals and be a valuable contribution to the program.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Sincerely,
XYZ
(What I want to know is if the letter is too long for a LOM (876 words/2 page long),
and second, if the research aspect in the body is complicated and overshadowing my motivation or not focusing enough on my personal skills etc.)