Some of my most favorite memories as a child was my Grandfather teaching me how to stand out and not be afraid to speak to new people. My debilitating fear of meeting strangers stunted my confidence for being able to achieve great things, yet my Grandfather was there every step of the way offering me Twix bars from our local grocery store on a daily basis as a reward system. A simple taxi driver who was born green during World War II because his mother only had grass to eat during the Soviet regime, shared the knowledge of how mountains grew, why clouds were clouds, and how fish can survive in freezing waters. As time passed and I became more educated, I noticed how this great man was making bad decisions about his health. He was a heavy smoker, …show more content…
I focused on how different factors in society, biology and the environment shape communities and individuals over time. As I dove deeper in medical anthropology, I noticed that there was a common reoccurring pattern of combining both anthropology and epidemiology to describe health problems within societal populations. I became fascinated with epidemiology because of the fact that disease can be affected by factors both on a macro and micro scale. In my field of applied anthropology, the reasons behind causal factors of disease are heavily studied to understand the population in a holistic fashion. The methodology and data collection techniques I learned as an anthropologist would give me a unique approach as an epidemiologist by helping me brainstorm ways to combat a disease by looking at a cultures ethnomedical system as well as historical and contemporary data in order to present a more clear and complete picture as to the cause of the distribution pattern. I want to research how and why disease outbreaks start, how diseases are transmitted among individuals in a population and how to effectively treat those diseases. My long-term career goal is to develop or improve clinical and medical research, as well as improve preventative