I was born in Sikasso, a small town located in the southern part of Mali, in 1981. We are a poor, small, landlocked country in West Africa and our principal activities are agriculture and cattle farming. One of the privileged few given the opportunity for an education at the Lycee Monseigneur Demontclos, I was able to go on to college. My father wanted me to be the first woman lawyer in the family so that I could assist our family and community with legal issues, but my mother´s influence ultimately prevailed. My mother was a nurse practitioner and midwife, so I was very much encouraged to pursue a career in health care. In fact, she wanted me to help her with her project of opening a private clinic when she retired.
I chose to study English and German because my secondary studies were based on these two languages. My initial aspiration was to build a career in translation and interpretation. And, although I focused on language rather than nursing or law, my parents supported my aspirations in language as they do now in my quest for an MBA dedicated to Health Care Administration. I have explained to my parents that Africa needs better health care administration, which of course is difficult to argue with, and they respect my career decision. We all understand as well that for better or for worse, health care, to some extent, is always business, especially in Africa.
I did very well with my projects in language arts and human sciences, research, class discussion. Although academically I did not perform to my satisfaction and graduated with a GPA of only 2.86, primarily the result of my own health challenges at this time Nevertheless, with the encouragements of my parents and my persistence in school, I was able to complete my undergraduate studies and obtain my BA in 2006. My final project dealt with the “Conflict of Cultures as Reflected in two African Novels: No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe and Ambiguous Adventure by Cheik Hamidou Kane.” I am pleased to be the language specialist in my family, since all my cousins study medicine, economics, and accounting.
During my summer vacations, I enjoyed several internships, including one with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs., in the Department of Languages I learned a lot about translation and numerous techniques of interpretation. I learned how to translate much more effectively, more concisely, without changing the meaning of the original text. I also mastered how to carry out someone’s speech in another language within a time limit. Another internship that I enjoyed was working at the international airport of Bamako-Senou (Mali). I informed passengers about the departures, arrivals, and delays of their flights in different languages (French, English, and German and one of our national languages Bamanan.
These internships introduced me to the working environment and gave me hands on experience in translation and communication, with an extremely broad variety of people. I also volunteered to teach our national language, Bamanan, to women in my village. At the same time, I did a study of the percentage of women who go to hospitals for prenatal consultations and vaccinations. And the number is extremely low.
This was due primarily to a lack of access to health care facilities coupled with the bad management of those health care systems that do exist in my country. I also devoted some of my time planting trees in my community since Mali faces a desperate challenge of counteracting her desertification, and I participated in the International Culture Day for university students in Mali. I was given an award for best actress and part of the best dancing couple, as well as best traditional costume.
Moreover, I decided to go abroad. I needed to explore; the dream place was the United States. My decision to come to the USA was energized by the support of my professors. Seeking greener pastures in New York, I went to medical institutes where I earned certificates in Phlebotomy EKG and Home Health Care Attendant. The HHA job helped me to better understand many important managerial principles pertaining to the health care system. And in addition to my professional experience, I have spent years preparing myself for graduate school by reading documents on health care management, organization design, behavior, health care administration, and public health. The greater the advance of my understanding, the more I wanted to become a distinguished leader in health care. This became my dream, my goal, and a challenge after my mother retired and opened her own clinic.
I want to pursue a master's degree in health care management studies, because I want to learn how to help my mother with her clinic and to help in the process of development of health care systems in Mali, especially for the people from my own village. In my heart, I wanted to be like my mother, someone who is willing to help others in ways she can. I want to be part of the development of my country, and I chose to help in the domain of health care since most of the population does not have access to health facilities and services, what system does exist is poorly organized, elitist, nepotistic, corrupt, and inefficient. I see health services as the principal platform of our economy. Like my mother, I have a natural love for the study of health care. Another of my final projects for my BA Degree traced the contribution of women in the economy through small businesses. This helped me to better appreciate how few women really do participate directly in the development of our national economy, and how much work remains to be done in this area.
I want to earn my MBA in Health Care Management at the XXXX School at XXXX University because of its location in the metropolis of Houston and it is a major Historically Black College and University. I am enormously proud to be an African woman and I hope to be active for an exceedingly long time in the promotion of my people in the international arena. I appreciate the priority focus in your program on the development of ethics in communication as well as information gathering and people skills—and especially the opportunities for hands on experience. I keenly look forward to making friends with other students from around the world who are equally concerned with health care administration.
MBA Healthcare Management Statement of Purpose
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