SOP for Master of Public Health, it needs work

[woograd15]

Growing up in a household with a chronically ill single parent, issues pertaining to health and wellness were perhaps a little bit more on my mind than the average child. One summer my mother, a long-term sufferer of severe asthma began experiencing an increased frequency of wheezing spells and asthma attacks. Being the tenacious problem solver that I was at the tender age of 9, I began thinking of potential triggers. After investigating my mother’s bedroom, I noticed two fans that had accumulated quite a bit of dust on the blades. After removing the fans, my mother and I both noticed a decrease in her flare-ups. As I grew and my interests fluctuated, my passion for problem-solving has always been a constant. The variety and complexity of issues pertaining to disease prevention and health promotion is what drew me to public health.

My first exposure to studying public health came my junior year of college when I participated in a study abroad program focused on human health and disease in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was there, I took a course on epidemiology and became very interested in various factors that contributed to disease’s mortality and morbidity, especially socioeconomic and behavioral factors. For my independent research project in the course, I did a comparative study between Denmark and the United States on the relationship between socioeconomic factors and type 2 diabetes morbidity.

The summer after I returned to the U.S., I began volunteering at a Red Cross Center based at the (blank) Air Force Base Medical Center. It was there, I learned firsthand the strain treating patients with chronic diseases had on the healthcare system. I also noticed that an overwhelming amount of patients were being treated for diseases that were highly preventable such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. I began thinking, what kind of interventions could have been made earlier, before these patients began getting treated at the hospital. After that summer not only did my interest in public health grow, the magnitude of its importance was also revealed.

Going further into my college career when I began working on my faculty-mentored senior independent study in which I was required to conceive, organize, and complete a significant piece of original research, I conducted a study investigating female preference for a cognitive trait in the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor. Although this topic may have seemed a far cry from public health, it did reinforce my interest in conducting research. It also strengthened my research skills, in planning a study step by step, from formulating a hypothesis to running data analysis. My problem solving skills were tested to the maximum as I went through experimental designs, finding the one that most accurately and efficiently tested my hypothesis. I also gained some less obvious skills such as staying committed to a long term research project when many obstacles and setbacks arose.

Today, public health officials face some daunting questions. What will be the effect of climate change on food production and access to sanitary water in an increasing world population? How can we better prevent the spread of infectious disease as humans are able to travel thousands of miles within hours? How can we keep the most vulnerable populations of people healthy, such as small children, the elderly, and economically disadvantage groups? I want to pursue a career in public health so that I can be a part of solving some of these very important problems.

I am particularly interested in epidemiology and researching interventions and health behaviors that combat the rising toll of preventable chronic diseases. Growing up in a household with a chronically ill parent, I am very familiar with the emotional and economic burden that can place on a family. I believe that my personal, academic, and research experience would make me a strong candidate for public health graduate program at (blank) University.