Medical School for Duke University School of Medicine - Admission/Application Essay Example

Medical School Essays for Duke School of Medicine Short Answer Questions: Community Service Please provide us information on the most important community service/volunteer activities in which you have been involved. Please indicate your role, the length of time that you were involved, and the number of hours/week, if applicable, that you participated. How has participation in these activities impacted your preparation for a career in medicine? This short question is limited to 1000 characters only, including spaces. – characters with spaces - 995 A very memorable community service experience was with Making Changes Freedom School, where I served as tutor-mentor to youths. This has entailed preparing activities that would help them deal with critical juvenile issues such as drugs, peer pressure and violence. Another would be my membership the Chicanos in Health Education, in which I helped organize the annual Raza Health Fair; this allowed me to develop leadership skills and at the same time reinforce my interest in the healthcare profession. My membership to the Center for Science Excellence has given me the opportunity to share my knowledge in Chemistry and microbiology to fellow students through tutoring sessions. My volunteer experience with the American Red Cross Bloodmobile has allowed me to interact with a multicultural community, and to use my proficiency in the Spanish language in helping patients comprehend instructions or clarify their issues. These have helped strengthen my resolve of pursuing a medical degree. Personal Impact 2) Among the service activities that you listed on your AMCAS application, in which activity did you feel that you truly made an impact on someone else? What was the impact on you? This short question is limited to 1000 characters only, including spaces. – characters with spaces – 908 I have worked as a tutor-mentor at the Making Changes Freedom School, which is a completely volunteer-run, grassroots movement of community members who sincerely want to make an authentic, positive difference in lives of elementary and high school students. This opportunity has allowed me to interact with a diverse, multicultural group, and be passionately involved in helping these youths bravely confront the challenges of their day, including drugs, peer pressure, violence and alcohol. Apart from academic excellence, I have independently designed activities that helped instill in them the values of assertiveness, responsibility, and a can-do attitude. I take profound pride in seeing that I have imparted to them the importance of academic excellence and of making value-driven decisions; I myself have developed greater self-mastery, accountability for my actions, and a stronger sense of altruism. Strengths and Weaknesses 3) Each student brings strengths and weaknesses to the medical school class. How might your own experiences or lack of experiences, strengths and/or weaknesses, advantages and/or disadvantages contribute to the makeup of next years class? How have these impacted your personal development and how have they contributed to your preparation for a career in medicine? This short question is limited to 1000 characters only, including spaces. – characters with spaces 999 I consider my minority status as a strength, with both parents being Mexican immigrants. I grew up in a Spanish speaking home, and initially I was embarrassed with not having the facility to speak in English proficiently. this outlook has changed as I have gained more opportunities to help others, such as when I volunteered for the California Pacific Medical Center and at the American Red Cross Mobile, when I was able to use Spanish to help minority patients clarify their concerns. Our financial difficulties have affected my education several times, compelling me to seek full-time work. But these experiences at working professionally as laboratory technician have helped me develop my love for scientific inquiry and the rigor of the research. These opportunities have taught me personal mastery and strength, fortitude, accountability, and maturity – factors, which are indispensable for pursuing a career in medicine, and helping promote respect for diversity in any learning environment. Honors 4) Please provide a list of your honors and awards. Indicate the one(s) of which you are the most proud and why. This short question is limited to 1000 characters only, including spaces. – characters with spaces – 972 My academic achievements and scholarships, among them being included in the Dean’s list at the University of California in Berkeley majoring in Public Health; being a National Dean’s list from 2004 until the present; a member of the National Scholars Honor Society; a member of the Chicanos in Health Education; a member of the Biology Scholars Program; and a recipient of several scholarships, including the Kennedy-King Memorial College Scholarship, the Hispanic College Fund Scholarship, the USA Funds Access to Education Scholarship, the Doctors Medical Center Auxiliary Scholarship and the Hispanic Fund Scholarship. Apart from these, I consider being an Eagle Scout a great honor; this represents the first time that I have had a real sense of achievement. I liken this experience to running. I didn’t realize that I was in a race, and I just loved running, and kept on going. It was the first time I saw myself as a leader and a productive citizen of my community. Experience 5) Please provide a chronological list of your work experience while in college, or subsequent to your graduation, if applicable. Please indicate the length of your employment, number of hours worked/week, and your exact job title. This short question is limited to 1000 characters only, including spaces. Bartending – I worked as bartender from 8/1992 to 11/1999, for 45 hours a week American Red Cross Blood Mobile – I worked as a professional volunteer from 9/1992 to 8/1994, for 3 hours per week. Pfizer Global Research and Development – I served as animal laboratory technician from 8/1998 to 2/2001, for 40 hours per week. Pharmacology and Toxicology Research Laboratory – I was laboratory technician from 2/2001 to present, for 33 hours a week. Tutor Experts – I served as a professional tutor-volunteer from 10/2004 to present, for 3 hours a week. Making Changes Freedom School – I rendered services as tutor-mentor from 3/2005 to present, for 4 hours a week. Research 6) Have you participated in or conducted investigative research? If so, please describe below. If you have published or are listed as an author on a publication or a manuscript in press, please provide the title, authors, and name of journal. This short question is limited to 1000 characters only, including spaces. – characters with spaces – 960 I have actively participated in investigative research during my work stint at PTRL West, Inc., a full service contract research laboratory that conducts studies to comply with regulatory requirements in environmental fate, metabolism and agrochemical analysis, among others. As a laboratory technician, I work on projects for environmental fate studies involving radio and non-labeled pesticides. This has allowed me to develop a strong background in research support, including sample preparation and analysis, purity using GC, HPLC, Biological Sample Oxidizers, and scintillation counter instrumentation. I have assisted in the conduct of soil sorption and mobility (adsorption/desorption and column leaching studies), metabolism in soils, hydrolysis (at various pH values and temperatures), photolysis studies (with artificial light in sterile buffer and/or natural waters with quantum yield measurement (actinometry), and on soils, and tobacco pyrolysis. Long Essay Questions: Moral Situation 7) Outside of the classroom (i.e., encounters with academic dishonesty), describe a difficult moral or ethical situation that you have encountered and how you dealt with it. What personal strengths, values, and beliefs helped you deal with or meet this challenge? This short question is limited to 2500 characters only, including spaces. – number of characters – 2363 This is something that I wrote regarding a similar topic and I want you to direct this same answer so that it answers the question, feel free to polish it or change it as you see fit. Being at the crossroads of making a career choice, and owing to my numerous volunteer experiences, I have been through extremely difficult and challenging circumstances. While most of these situations were manageable, there were also those that demanded considerable coping skills and upfront decision making. Of particular significance is when I witnessed a grave wrongdoing by a colleague that was clearly against the interest of the program of which I am a member. I was to make a choice between the reputation of the person and the program’s integrity. I belong to a program at UC Berkeley called the Biology Scholars Program. It is an intensive enrichment program for disadvantaged and underrepresented undergraduates who are interested in careers in the life sciences. The Biology Scholars Program (BSP), sponsored by the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, enriches its members’ undergraduate experience by providing opportunities to learn about and participate in the biological sciences. Members gain access to a wide variety of resources including academic guidance, tutoring, personal support, internship opportunities, preparation for professional programs and a sense of community. One of those resources is a test bank, which provides its members with past exams from a variety of science courses. Those are supposed to be privy only to the members of the program. I recently uncovered that one of our members was selling these very same exams via the school website to people outside of the BSP community. The fact that people outside of our program were receiving these past examination papers did not bother me much. What really disturbed me was that the culprit was profiting from a resource that is normally free. It was a difficult decision to make because I was personally close to the person doing this. I was in a dilemma – I also wanted to protect the integrity of the program along with all of its benefits. I could not even seek help from others. It was a question of making a value-driven decision, which potentially puts our friendship at stake. However tough it may have been, I finally chose to go by what my conscience told me. I brought it to the attention of the Director and the Assistant Directors. Appropriate disciplinary action was taken and there were no major implications to the program and the organization. Life Extending and Life Altering Technologies 8) The scientific and popular news media have heralded several "life-extending" and “life-altering” technologies--among which are embryonic stem-cell research, cloning, genetic intervention, and organ transplantation. While such technologies represent remarkable developments and applications of our emerging scientific understanding, these technologies raise critical issues with respect to the ethics, morality and economics of these technologies. Identify some of the critical issues evoked by such technologies and address what potential moral, theological, and ethical questions might arise from the decisions made regarding developing and using these technologies in the care of patients. This short question is limited to 2500 characters only, including spaces. – characters with spaces – 2500 Cloning brings to the fore several ethical issues. First, the purpose of the creation of cloned human embryos is to harvest their cells and / or use them in lethal experimentation, and this seems a worthy cause for the advancement of scientific research. Personally, no matter how beneficial the medical research gains may be, unethical experimentation may never be justified; I uphold that the end does not justify the means. At the end of the day, these researches are still unethical. Another issue is killing cloned embryos that have little probability of developing normally into adulthood. Who are the scientists to judge that the embryo has less moral value than other ‘healthy’ or ‘normal’ embryos? I would like to put forth a clearer parallelism: if a child is born with a congenital defect that reduces his chances of surviving into adulthood, this does not imply that he ought to receive less protection than another being not inflicted with the congenital abnormality. In other words, the span of life of a human being is not a measure of personhood or humanity. These issues, along with religious arguments, make me convinced that cloning will not be worthwhile in the long-term. Stem cell research also has its own set of moral issues. For instance, what criteria will be utilized in choosing which research ought to be funded? Some of the questions posted are: “Will support be given to those lines of research likely to save the most lives? What of research on non-fatal disorders that can currently be managed but not cured, such as juvenile diabetes? Presumably one criterion in apportioning funds will be promise of benefits. What kind of benefits? To whom?” Another noteworthy consideration is the ownership or receipt of benefits. For example, the state of California Stem Cells Research and Cures initiative has decided to sponsor this initiative. This brings up the issue of patents and profits and special access to the cures. A more important issue would be the sectors that would benefit most from the initiative. Because human embryos will be gathered from fertility centers that mostly have upper middle class white couples as patients, will research on minorities receive an equal focus? The rights of the embryo donor and securing informed consent are equally critical – it may be necessary to inform the donor of all experimental procedures that will be conducted. These are important ethical issues that have to be resolved before finally undertaking this initiative. Read More