I am a strong candidate for your program because of the mixture of public administration and health care in my academic and professional preparation. Growing up on the border between Turkey and Georgia helped form me to become a cosmopolitan and multilingual woman—Turkish, Georgian, Russian (beginner), and English. Working and studying as a health care professional here in America has provided me with vast opportunities to observe health care organizations here as well.
he internships that I completed with several different health facilities in Turkey were central to my professional development; especially visiting villages to provide vaccinations and health care information. While I was unable to complete my master's in international relations in Turkey because of my immigration to the U.S., I learned a great deal about comparative political and administrative systems.
I was never one who struggled through my youth without knowing what I wanted to do with my life. For me, working in Health Care has been my aspiration since adolescence and I am most thankful for this dedication to human service that has been instilled in me since my youth. The logical step for me as a young woman in Turkey was to become a nurse; thus, I attended a vocational high school that trained me in nursing, helping to lay the foundation for my later becoming a R.N. here in America. Studying towards my B.A. in Public Administration in Turkey helped to prepare me to become a critical thinker who is fascinated with and profoundly engaged in the political questions that are most relevant to the social organization of my world and the critical issues and opportunities that result from these configurations.
In nursing school, I regularly visited villages along with public health experts to educate families and vaccinate their children. And we had to struggle to overcome enormous challenges, such as parents who resisted the vaccination of their children because they thought that this would render them infertile. The lack of adequate public education about vaccinations made it difficult to stop contagious diseases. These experiences helped to inspire my dedication to the goal of spending the balance of my professional existence working in clinical epidemiology. In both Turkey and later in the US, studying and working as a medical assistant, it was laboratory work which I found most exciting. I feel born to scientific exploration.
Working as a medical assistant, I had the privilege of dealing with many immigrant patients with low incomes who often waited until it was too late before seeing a health care professional. Thus, I have become extremely sensitive to the economic, cultural, and educational issues that are involved in American health care—especially concerning those who are most vulnerable. My central interests lie in the areas of perinatal epidemiology with research interests in reproductive health, adverse perinatal outcomes, infectious diseases, and HIV/STD prevention among vulnerable populations.
I now realize that my heart has moved in these directions because of my aunt dying during childbirth because of pre-eclampsia and my mother almost losing her life bringing me into the world for the same reason. Thus, I am profoundly engaged with the struggle against genetically-based disease, and I want to make a career out of studying prenatal and postnatal disease and infant mortality—as a woman. I see prenatal and postnatal mortality rates as the most essential signs of the development of a nation or people. I want to give my life to research in reproductive health, adverse perinatal outcomes, infectious diseases, and HIV/STD prevention among vulnerable populations.
I was able to receive my Medical Assistant Diploma with honors from XXXX Institute in Norcross because of hard work, profound dedication to my studies, and the early preparation that I received in this area Completing vocational high school studies in Turkey in 1997, at only sixteen, I graduated second in my class. Graduating from the Black Sea Technical University in Turkey with a B.A. in Public Administration and then going on to study international relations at Gazi University in Turkey’s capital—I was forced to interrupt my studies to immigrate to the USA. I now look forward to returning to full time graduate study in your program and I am most excited about my candidacy.
MSPH Public Health Masters Personal Purpose Statement
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