Summer Undergraduate Research Program - Fred Hutchinson ...

MD/PhD MD/PhD Personal Example Personal Statement #2 #2
One of my earliest memories is standing on the steps late at night, watching an
ambulance retrieve my mother from our front gate to take her to work. I was four
and already, this was a common occurrence. My mother was frequently on call
because she was an anesthesiologist at the XX Hospital in XX XXX. These memories
of my childhood in XX XXX are scattered on the backdrop of the Civil War between
the ethnic majority, the XX and the minority, the XX. I was born to a XX family in a
year that the war took a particularly violent turn, during a time my parents settled
in XX, a predominantly XX city where my mother miraculously practiced medicine
for almost a decade. Yet, by the time I was seven, the tensions from the war forced
my parents to emigrate to XX, where my mother went through the grueling and
often frustrating process of getting certified to practice medicine. Supporting my
mother through this period made me understand the commitment and tenacity
required to become a physician. When I began college, I was unsure of my resolve to
become a doctor. However, I fell into medicine again through my experiences with
working with low-­‐income XXs and in research and then finally by visiting the
hospital.
Because of the generosity of the friends and strangers who helped us make the
move to XX, my parents always valued service to others and encouraged me to
volunteer. During my freshman year of college, I began volunteering at the XX Café,
which provides made-­‐to-­‐order breakfasts for underprivileged people in the
community. As a waitress, I befriended the Café’s regulars, who generously allowed
me into their lives, sharing their own histories of triumph and defeat. The people I
served provided an important perspective on working with individuals who are
seen as outcasts by society. Moreover, the experience clarified my desire to work in
a field that directly benefits people in need and allows for people to cultivate rich
relationships.
When I started college, medical school was not on the horizon, but I enjoyed science
and research seemed a natural extension of this interest. In the lab, I found an
unexpected passion for discovery. Research challenged me to persevere through
failed experiments and revised hypotheses, contribute to a scientific team, and push
boundaries. My first independent research project was to rescue lethality of a
mutant fly despite literature that described this type of rescue as impossible. To my
surprise, after eight weeks, I successfully performed the rescue. This experience
made me view limitations in not only research but also in medicine differently.
With this new perspective, I began shadowing in the XX XXX Unit at the XX XXX
Medical Center in XX, XX. While what I saw in the clinic reaffirmed the notion that
research is critical for the new insights that advance medicine, I also learned at the
XX the importance of the nuanced interaction between physician and patient. When
medications failed, I saw that the watchful eye and constant encouragement of a
doctor is often treatment in itself. Physicians face limitations intrinsic to the practice
of medicine and the imperfections of the approaches and technologies available to
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