Personal Statement: Career Goals For A Rural Community

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Luanda Billups Having a strong passion to improve health care in rural communities through research in infectious diseases, viral infections, and immunology is a vital career goal for me today. Growing up in Chicago, Illinois as a child, I was hospitalized on several occasions with severe asthma. Not being able to breathe was a terrifying experience for me. Several times, I wanted to give up due to my family financial issues. The care that I received while being hospitalized, was like no other. It made me cry to see how much some of the physicians cared for not only me but my family as well. The medical professionals made me realize that their profession was what I wanted to become a part of someday. Seeing the true meaning of being an …show more content…

As a laboratory prep, I was able to set up labs for freshmen and sophomore biology classes. Also, I made visits to my professor’s labs to observe the procedures graduate students used for their experiments and I loved it. After completion of my freshman year, I participated in the “Maternal Child Health Pipeline Training Program” that following summer. I conducted field research that focused on the public health of mothers and children in rural communities. The fall semester of sophomore year, I shadowed graduate students studying breast cancer cells. Later that same year, I began my own research with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Upon my junior year, I was accepted into the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medical Program in Auburn, Alabama. At the same time, I was accepted into the Tropical and Infectious Diseases Association in Iquitos, Peru. I was able to study abroad and work in a lab focusing on the negative gram bacteria that was in the water of the poor community of Iquitos, Peru. All of the opportunities I was able to be a part of from my freshman year till this present day has reconfirmed my passion and contributed to my specific area of research and the population I want to

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