Overcoming Challenges: My Journey to Medical School

PERSONAL STATEMENT Born to a middle class family in India, I was fortunate to have parents that made sure I lacked no opportunities when it came to education. I grew to have a fascination for life sciences and it inspired me to continue with higher levels of three major science groups in high school: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Initially I struggled with physics, but I drew motivation from my dream of being a doctor. This was a dream I was not ready to sacrifice, and so I worked many extra hours to understand the concepts of Physics. I started to see the improvement and eventually my grades were good enough for me to compete against hundred thousand students applying for medical school. Thanks to this determination, I was accepted into medical school and thus a step closer to accomplishing my dream.

As I rotated through various departments during my clinical years, I felt an immense attraction towards Family Medicine for the variety it offers in terms of challenging cases ranging from infants to elderly, the opportunities of research, bonds created with patients and families. This awakened not only a desire to pursue family medicine where I could form long-term relationships with my patients, but also an interest in health policy. Family Medicine offers an opportunity to focus on a comprehensive patient care to all the age groups and also provide quality mental and behavioral health care in primary care settings . During my clinical years I was a part of Pulse Polio Immunization campaign established by the government of India to eliminate Poliomyelitis by immunizing all children under the age of five years against polio