In 500 words or less, please describe how you plan to help fulfill the needs of your community after you've completed your education.
Although I care deeply about all my community's desires, whether financial, educational, or even spiritual, I believe that my talents are best suited to fulfill my community's health care needs. After earning a medical degree, I would like to improve community health standards and increase opportunities for youngsters to involve themselves in clinical and lab settings.
As a medical professional, my education and training would allow me to evaluate and impact community fitness. Volunteering at Codman Square's Childcare Center during the seven-week Harvard Summer School Program showed me that an investment in health care can profoundly improve the well-being of a community.
Our first day as volunteers, Bill Walczak, the president and founder of the Health Center, greeted us and briefly summarized the neighborhood's history. During the 1960s, Codman Square, originally prosperous, saw race riots and violent protests. It lost intellectual and economic capital in the subsequent "white flight". Although, Codman Square remains an underserved neighborhood, Codman Square Health Center, founded in the late 1970's, continues to combat the pervasive poverty and violence of Dorchester and provide affordable healthcare for poor citizens, many on Medicaid.
The health center provides Public Health initiatives, Flu Clinics, Adult Education, and Youth Services. Additionally, its dedicated professionals help combat diabetes and HIV, and other exigent diseases in the population. By partnering with major organizations and offering free gym memberships to select patients, Codman Square Health Center has also decreased the number of overweight females in the community. It has also invested in Dorchester's education by founding a Charter School within the hospital.
In essence, Codman Square remains essential to the social and economic restoration of Dorchester. Like Dr. Paul Farmer, in Mountains Beyond Mountains, who founded modern medical clinics in the poorest parts of Haiti and other third-world countries, I believe that one person can make a tremendous difference.As Dr. Paul Farmer states, "We`ve taken on the major health problems of the poorest - tuberculosis, maternal mortality, AIDS, malaria - in four countries...and changed the discourse about what is possible." As a physician, I would like to follow Walczak and Dr. Paul Farmer's example and establish clinics to improve communities worldwide.
Additionally, I would like to provide more opportunities for youngsters interested in the health professions. As the child of Singaporean and Taiwanese immigrants with few connections to the higher-up's of society, I longed to involve myself in research opportunities, and clinical settings, but finding these resources and opportunities was difficult due to my family's limited connections. With a medical background, I will have the expertise to serve as a mentor for students aspiring toward health and clinical science.
Ultimately, my education remains the essential link between serving as a role model for Asian-American women everywhere and providing opportunities for young people to experience research and clinical practice. With APIASF's help, I can achieve my dreams of assisting and healing not only individual patients, but also improving my community's health care and well-being.
Thank you guys! It's due tonight at midnight!
