MD, Cuban Immigrant Parents, Boat People

I hope to distinguish myself as an applicant to medical school primarily on the basis of my experience as a clinical researcher, my dedication to volunteer work, and the great passion that I have for helping the underserved. I feel strongly that the humble beginnings of my own family have helped to make me someone who is especially empathetic to the plight of the medically underserved and determined to build a career doing everything that I can to help them. I hope to become a distinguished and very hard working physician who takes a great interest in my patients as holistic entities, not just sick bodies, which is why I minored in Psychology as well as completing my undergraduate studies with a major in Biology.

Both of my parents are Cuban. My mother left Cuba on a boat without even saying goodbye to her family. Since that time, she has struggled to bring almost all of them to the USA, one by one. My mom is my central hero in life because she has never ceased to struggle to make it in America and I will always admire her perseverance. Perhaps the greatest and most relevant gift that my mother has given me is my first language, Spanish. I was born in Miami but I did not start learning English until I went to school. This enables me to communicate with complete fluency with many of the medically underserved who are much more comfortable in their native Spanish than they are communicating in English. I fully intend to put this gift to good use in years to come serving my community as a physician, especially the most recent, undocumented arrivals from Latin America. I also want to make my mother proud of her daughter, so that she sees how her struggle has been highly successful.

I can’t exactly pinpoint when it was that I decided I wanted to become a doctor, but as long as I can remember it’s the only career that has ever attracted me. Although I know that this profession is an especially demanding one, I love the complexity and challenge of medicine. So far, I have found a sense of happiness and passion in my volunteer work helping those in need that has surpassed my wildest expectations. I want very much to dedicate my own life to making daily, positive contributions to the lives of others saving lives, preventing suffering, and making meaningful contributions to research for the benefit of future generations of medical practitioners.

There will be numerous applicants who have better grades than I do, but I ask that in consideration of my application to you take into full consideration my extensive community service, clinical observations, and the knowledge I have gained through my research experience. I now have acquired an in-depth understanding of what is required to become a successful physician and, through my perseverance, determination, and high level of commitment I feel strongly that I will be able to excel in your program.

My passion for helping people began at an early age in my life. To me there is nothing more gratifying in life then helping those in need. I’ve always hated not being able to do more for those in need because of the limited knowledge I have now, which is why I want to become a doctor. Thinking back to the first time I volunteered, it was in high school my freshmen year. All throughout high school my passion had been sports, primarily Basketball. As a community service project our basketball team volunteered to help with Special Olympics in Basketball. We helped them in practice, and coached them during games. I was extremely excited to finally apply and join the knowledge I have for basketball with the love I have for volunteering. Have that experience, I wanted to do more, and I was able to set up our team to continue helping them every year. Once I got to college, I got involved in several clubs (American Medical Student Association, Medically Engaged Students, and Delta Phi Epsilon). In DPhiE, I became the community service chairperson, where I directed a group of 80+ girls in community service events. Through AMSA, I was lucky enough to have been chosen to be part of a medical mission to Kingston, Jamaica. We went to Jamaica during our spring break to help underserved clinics and hospitals over there. Here, we spent months gathering medical supplies and raising money for the mission. While we were there our mornings would start at 6am and we wouldn’t finish until 9/10pm. Being on that medical mission made me so much more appreciative of the medical healthcare that we are provided here in the United States. After graduating, with the free time that I had, I was finally able to become part of a foundation I have always wanted to help – Make-A-Wish Foundation (http://wish.org/). Through my experiences of volunteering, I have grown to view life in a different way. I am extremely grateful for everything that I have been blessed with. I’m thankful that I am healthy and that I am able to help and volunteer my time, I can only hope and dream to somehow contribute more in the future after hopefully getting accepted to Medical School.

At the moment, I am involved in research at a local trauma center, specifically working with the burn unit. Our research is both basic science research and clinical science. Through my experience in research over the past year, I have realized just how important research is in the medical field. I hope to one day continue making a contribution to the medical field through research.