Marine Biologist Personal Statement

Growing up, I always wanted to become a marine biologist. During 2nd grade, I did a research project on penguins, describing their habitats, diets, and mating behaviors. As a child, I always dreamed of one day participating in a field expedition at Antarctica to study their breeding and migration patterns. My interests in medicine didn’t start until my junior year of high school. It was through a conservation I had with a mother and her child, while I working as a volunteer in NYC’s Lunar New Year Parade, that helped me better understand not only my own goals and aspirations, but also helped me realize my role as a role model for other immigrants. During the parade, the mother came up to me, asking if her child could get a closer view of the

Working with the Emergency Department, I learned about the importance of patient communication and its effects it has on a patient’s overall care. During my shift, I remember meeting a patient, whom came to the ER with symptoms of a miscarriage. Already having history of previous miscarriages, the patient came into the ER distressed about the condition of her fetus. As I interviewed her about her backstory and her previous experiences with miscarriages, I had the opportunity to better understand how she was feeling. As we talked, I noticed that the change in her facial expressions; she not only started to smile more, but she also slowly started to open up to me, talking about her future plans with the child. Seeing her her face lighten up after our conservation and being able to ease her anxieties, I realized my passion for medicine and patient care. From this and many other patient encounters, I started to better understand that being a doctor is more than just physically treating patients, as the intimate relationship forged between patients and physicians also plays a role in the patient’s recovery. From observing doctors performing diagnoses and general care to watching doctors perform resuscitations on patients and patients having consecutive seizures, my experience working the ED helped solidify my interests in medicine and patient

Interested in psychiatry and having taken courses from the NYU’s Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies, joined the Institute for Social and Psychiatric Initiatives (InSPIRES) at the Bellevue Hospital. Working with the InSPIRES not only gave me the opportunity to interact with patients, ranging from homeless to medically underrepresented patients, that I wouldn’t have been able to interact with at Mount Sinai, but also the opportunity to interact with psychiatric inpatients and outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or schizoaffective disorder. Being able to shadow psychiatrists in the 18N unit and observe them interacting with their patients gave me a better sense of what being a doctor really meant, beyond the medical aspect. Doctors, in some ways, are mentors, or guides, for patients. Doctors not only physically treat patients, but also act as an emotional support when patients are feeling at their lowest. During my time working in the 18N inpatient unit, I met a patient, whom symptoms of schizophrenia escalated after his separation with his wife. A father of two, throughout his stay in the in-patient unit, his main motivator in recovering was the thought of him reuniting with his children. One of the best moments I had while working in the in-patient unit was being able to him that he was going to get discharged.