Grapevine Personal Statement

I came to America from Vietnam when I was just three years old. I spent a majority of my life with my grandma, who has always taught me the importance of helping others. She always told me to have; you must give, and if you have nothing to give, you can always give your time. This phase has been a huge guide in my life, and it has truly shaped me into who I am. At a young age, I always felt that my purpose in life was to help people. After attending many doctor visits with my grandma for her health check-ups, I was confident my future occupation would be in the medical field. During these frequent doctor visits, I had the chance to watch the interactions and cooperation among different healthcare professionals in different settings. Being in this inspiring environment, I hoped one day I could mirror them and make a difference in people’s lives and the community. Although I have always wanted to help those in need, I was uncertain of what specific career role would allow me to fulfill my passion for helping others.

Through the many trips that my family has taken to the hospital due to various reasons, I have become fond of the hospital and its many wonders. After all the things that the medical field has done for me and my family, I decided to contribute to my local hospital to volunteer and help out those who pay visits to the hospital. Through my exposure to various clinical populations, I want to improve my ability to serve others in this capacity that can guide me towards the medical profession in the future.

Volunteering at Texas Health Presbyterian Plano is my way of giving back to the community while developing critical social skills, and gaining important medical field exposure along the way. It’s an opportunity to change a person’s life, including my own. I volunteered at two hospitals last summer and I’m well acquainted with what volunteering entails and would more than love to do it again. Through this hospital volunteer program, I hope to discover my own passions and talents, while also developing skills that I will utilize throughout my entire high school and college experience.

In my time volunteering at the hospital, I hope to gain many different experiences. However, there are a few main ones: adaptation through enrichment and dependability. First of all, I want to get to know and adapt to the environment of the hospital and learn how different processes work. This is a crucial part of being in the atmosphere of a clinic. Also, the experiences that I will have at the hospital will help me to understand the routines and entailments of the career I would like to pursue. I hope to become a Physician’s Assistant in the future and this will be the best way to know if it is the right position for me. This enrichment of my understanding will help guide my passion for this career path and hopefully strengthen it.

Cedars-Sinai is a place that offers a wide variety of opportunities to volunteer within health providing services. As a student that is driven to pursue a career in the health field in order to improve the service of patients, I am interested in aiding doctor, nurses, physician assistants, and more in providing the quality care that all patients should receive. Additionally, I am interested in participating in the amazing programs that Cedars-Sinai offers for students such the TCAB and the Pre-Healthcare Volunteer programs. If I have the opportunity to participate in these programs, I would ultimately be open to aid in a wide range of duties. I am fully committed to help, to volunteer, and to learn.

During my junior year, connections through Sports Medicine exposed me to the hospital environment. After volunteering for a few hospital events, I decided to apply for a permanent volunteer position at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. I now work on a Med/Surg nursing unit weekly, and I love giving back to my community in this way. The Sports Medicine Program is the educational opportunity that enabled me to explore and expand my passion for serving others, and led me toward pursuing a career in

“Never be a doctor if you’re going to have any loans to pay back.” “Don’t do this to yourself.” “You’ll never have a family if you go to medical school.” “The two worst jobs in America belong to physicians and teachers.” Without even soliciting their advice, physicians noticed my “Pre-medical Volunteer” nametag, and immediately approached me with words of discouragement. I participated in a volunteer summer internship at St. Mary Hospital in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, following my sophomore year of college, in an effort to gain more experience in the medical field and solidify my lifelong desire to become a physician. Throughout the eight weeks, I spent mandatory hours in both the Emergency Room and the Operating Room, made contacts with physicians in specific areas of interest, and spent time shadowing them. In addition, each of us in the program attended weekly business meetings in which administrators of the hospital and local physicians spoke to us about their particular positions and experiences. Unlike the many years of high school I spent volunteering at a hospital and a nursing home, where I was limited to carrying around food trays and refilling cups of water, I was able to gain hands-on and more intimate experience. Initially uneasy at the site of the blood gushing into plastic sheets draped around the orthopedic surgeon’s patient in the OR, it took only a few days to grow accustomed to the images on the television screen during a laparoscopic procedure and the

“Volunteering in EMS has been a very rewarding experience,” he said. “As an EMT or paramedic, you get to see the impact of your work on your campus and community. As a student, it’s certainly beneficial — not only are you learning life-saving medical techniques, you are also acquiring an invaluable skillset, including time management skills and multitasking, which are in high demand in the world when you graduate. As is often the case with many campus activities, volunteering in college EMS takes time — collegiate EMTs need to be able to balance their important, lifesaving work on the ambulance, while still keeping up with academics.”

Going into this job shadowing experience I did not expect to get hands on experience the way I did on some days. On some days I got to go in patients rooms and interact and make conversation with the patient. The nurse guided me, and showed me what exactly her day was like and what she was going to do with the patient that day. Some patients were better off than others which was very sad to see but is also reality. Once I get a job in this field I have to realize that.

Three years ago, before I began taking prerequisites for medical school, I started volunteering at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. I witnessed the lifesaving work that the doctors and nurses perform. Assisting the staff, transporting patients, stocking bays, and speaking to family members of patients allowed me to experience the inner workings of a trauma unit. Seeing the effects of crime and the drug epidemic and how the staff was able to give patients a new lease on life was truly remarkable and has reinforced my desire to help others.

As a recent graduate of the Johns Hopkins University and a new Research Technician at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, becoming more familiar with different healthcare settings and helping others in doing so have always been of my interest. From my experience of volunteering as a piano teacher for inner-city children in Baltimore, I have learnt that even a small commitment and emotional support can make a big difference in the daily lives and the happiness of those in need. I have briefly familiarized myself to the hospital environment by shadowing physicians and conducting biomedical research but have yet to translate my volunteering experiences and the lessons learnt from them to the healthcare setting. I am a friendly, optimistic,

Since starting, I have step-by-step integrated myself into various aspects of the clinic, although I admit that I still have a lot to learn. I plan on volunteering there long after this internship is over, so hopefully those things will eventually come. Volunteering there has illustrated the joy of healthcare that I have always imagined. Even if the private sector of healthcare is like Maliheh, as a doctor, I will make volunteer work a core tenet of my life. These experiences over my internship have helped contribute to that burning desire.

Throughout my four years of college, I wanted to learn about myself and the world. I did not want to follow a particular path or be strict with myself. Now, as a graduate I discovered my passion for health and helping people. I want to volunteer at New York Methodist Hospital because I want to learn more about health while getting to help people feel at peace during a difficult time in their life. I am ready to learn and I am ready for a new experience. I want to learn from accomplished individuals and further my knowledge in health for when I decide to go to nursing school. At the age of 5, I had to help my grandma because she could not walk due to arthritis of the spine and knee. At a young age I learned how one person can make a difference

Hospitals are a great way for a medical student to serve the community as well as gain valuable experience in their future field. For this reason, I have spent around forty hours from the end of the summer up until now volunteering at HonorHealth hospital. I volunteered as a transporter, what this means is that I move equipment, medical documents and lab samples around the hospital. I also help discharge patients by pushing them in a wheelchair to their car. Through this experience I was able to make life easier on people who were vulnerable and trying to recover as well as the busy staff member who treated them. I had many interactions with people and by from this I have a better understanding of impact my service had. I will be discussing: How psychology can explain social interaction, how outside factors can influence a person 's sense of self, how behaviors and situations can help you understand a person, the importance of communication as well as focus, and the environment shapes the organization.

By majoring in public health or a similar field such as psychology or biology, I will acquire an in depth background in life sciences that is necessary for medical school and also a career in neurology, as it will demand me to call on this knowledge in order to diagnose and treat patients. I also plan to take required courses to prepare for medical school, including courses in chemistry, biology, and physics. However, this education will not be nearly as effective if I do not have any hands on experience in the field. For this reason I plan to make the most out of volunteer and internship opportunities made available at UT. I would love to work with hospitals such as St. David’s and Brackenridge. I plan to make use of the Office of Undergraduate Research as well, where I will be able to gain lab and research experience. Volunteering in the environment I aspire to have a career in will get me familiar with how a hospital works and will also help me to apply and understand on a deeper level the information I learn in classes, and research will add experience so that I can enter the workforce with a strong resume as well as a quality education. Additionally, the volunteer and research experiences will prepare me for my actual career so that I will have the best background to successfully treat