Personal Statement

For as long as I remember, I wanted to be a physician. Throughout my life I had key experiences, including shadowing physicians, working in a research lab, and serving my community with Dallas SouthWest Kids, that fortified my desire to be a doctor. I grew up in my parents’ medical office, Ear Nose & Throat Care in Oak Cliff, Texas. As both of my parents are ENT surgeons that own their own practice, I spent hours after school in their clinic and listened to them discuss their cases, billing, and insurance. Watching my parents work was the first exposure I had to medicine. I learned that I want to be a physician because I saw that my parents make decisions every single day that impact their patients and their community. Through my parents,

I observed internal medicine and radiology clinics in Dallas, and a Cook Children’s practice and emergency room in Fort Worth. I also shadowed physicians abroad. I traveled to Isla Mujeres, Cancún, Mexico and observed a doctor who worked for the Red Cross, and the summer before my junior year of college, I joined the Atlantis Project and went to Spain to shadow physicians for four weeks at a local hospital. These experiences broadened my exposure to global medicine and convinced me that healthcare is the career for me. For example, the Atlantis Project opened me to the breadth and power of medicine because I observed a multitude of specialties that I never shadowed before and it was the first time I was immersed in a hospital and saw surgery. Through the Atlantis project, shadowing the physician in Mexico, and observing doctors in the DFW metroplex, I realized that I want to become a physician because I have seen all that healthcare and medicine can do and that around the globe, doctors are making the world a better

I spent my junior and senior years at TCU working in an undergraduate biology laboratory studying inflammation and the immune response. Working in the lab was the hardest thing I have ever done; I failed every day working in that lab. However, I grew immensely as a person and learned the importance of patience and perseverance. I learned how to plan an experiment, how to plan and predict for the future, and how to think critically and analytically. From my research, I have developed a love for molecular biology. When shadowing physicians, I saw the clinical aspect of medicine and how doctors decide to treat a disease, but working in the lab showed me the other side of disease: the cellular effects. I have become interested in approaching medicine in an intellectual and scientific way. Through my research, I realized the importance of evidence-based medicine, and I am excited to pursue a career in medicine during a time when scientific research and particularly cell biology is especially important. I want to be a physician not only because I will care about my patients, but because I care about curing disease and finding the best treatments for those