College Essay

My passion for people and medicine is the motivation that inspired my application to the Graduate School of Public Health. I have a firm conviction that the intimate nature of helping people make responsible decisions about their health, is what I am destined to do. I have always known that these motivations and convictions would take me into some kind of institution of higher education and now it is clear what I want to do when I get there. My immediate goals upon completion of the MPH at SDSU consist of two things, working to bring progressive change to underserved communities and continuing my education by going to medical school. With this knowledge and an MPH, I hope to serve as a primary care physician, working directly with segments of the population that most need understanding and culturally aware physicians. Eventually I would like to do the kind of work that is being done by people like Dr. Joseph Betancourt M.D. MPH of Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Betancourt's work specializes in understanding cross-cultural communication in healthcare and exploring root causes for racial/ethnic disparities in health as well as developing a framework of cultural competence as health policy. Dr. Betancourt's work combines the science of health with an understanding of society. In one study that he worked on that was just released by the National Academies' Institute of Medicine, it was found that racial disparities exist in healthcare and that what is needed is a social policy that sensitizes healthcare professional to the needs of minority populations. This far-reaching and thorough research is of the kind that I want to be associated with someday. I want to build the experience that will enable me to be a part of a social medicine that creates healthier, longer lives for all communities.

One of first times that I actually encountered public health in an academic arena was in a class entitled "AIDS, Science and Society". The scientific breakdown of the virus accompanied by the social implications of a "brand new" disease was very interesting. Still, I wasn't sure what it was I was more drawn to, the social aspect or the science of health. I realize now that I am truly interested and at my best when I can relate health science with society. For example, in the class, figuring the pathway of a retrovirus became much more interesting and in turn easier to understand because I was learning what AIDS means to certain segments of the community. I found that this multi-faceted approach allowed me to ask more intelligent and perceptive questions than I would have thought to ask if I were to study only one aspect of health. I think that this will hold true in my career goals as well. The combination of public health and medical degree's will give me the tools to tackle the tough issues by asking inspiring questions that motivate to seek bold answers.

One of these issues is the difficulty that healthcare practitioners face when dealing with cross-cultural barriers such as language. An important event for me was my work as a Mystery Patient. I had been hired by hospitals to rate how Non-English speaking patients were treated. It was an illuminating personal and professional experience. With a hidden tape recorder and mental notations I posed as a patient exhibiting a variety of illnesses. I worked for several hospitals doing 10 visits. My insights were uniform across all the places where I worked. I reported that when there is a barrier