sastacey7 Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Hi all, I previously posted my rough draft and then a more final version of this statement. In general, the feedback that I got on this forum was that it needed major changes and was too personal and risky. However, after several PA's and past adcom members read it and gave me positive feedback, I decided to go with it. Below is the final version that was submitted. I now have several interviews, including one of my top choices (I should say that I have three programs that are tied for 'top'). One school sent me an interview offer with in 24 hours of my submitting my final, supplemental documentation, and another with in 4 days. I thought I would post it again as encouragement to some who may be torn between how personal to be. I decided that I wanted to truly be ME and that meant saying what is below. Good luck to everyone applying this cycle! I sat in an abortion clinic pondering the best decision for me and my unborn child. It seemed everyone wanted this abortion to happen except me; I was unsure and confused, desperate for someone to listen to me. My father's words, "You have ruined your life" echoed in my head. I was 14, but I could still think and was not even close to being convinced that he was right. I knew my plans of a 4.0 GPA through high school, maintaining all my extracurricular activities and hospital volunteer hours, rigorous academic program and one day becoming a doctor, were forever changed. My paradigm had shifted with the force of an earthquake. Now the most monumental decision of my life was not about me. For the first time, in the whirlwind, I found people, the clinic staff, who wanted to listen to me. It made all the difference. Nearly 16 years later I look back and recognize the supportive care I received during the pregnancy and birth of my son altered the path I would take, but changed little about the final destination. It both solidified a desire to work as a health care provider and gave me insight into the impact medical professionals have on the patients they see. As a child wanting to become a doctor, I knew only of doctors and nurses. Subsequent exposure to different health care systems and professions revealed many other options. In the fall of 2000 I was stationed in England as a Russian linguist. I worked for several months in the National Health System (NHS) clinic on the base and was an NHS patient when my husband and I were expecting our second child. It was interesting to compare different medical systems, to observe the benefits and drawbacks of each. Although there are differences in treatment decisions, co-pays, and staff income, I recognized that regardless of the system I worked in my priority would always remain constant: to provide high quality patient care. While I truly still loved working with language, my experience in NHS as a worker and patient reminded me how much I loved and had missed talking with and educating patients and being a catalyst for positive change in their lives. I never felt any dimming of my passion for and desire to work in health care. Now I realized I could potentially help the Russian community in the USA using my language skills in a health care provider role. I received an honorable discharge from the Navy returned to America with my family. We settled in, and though continuing my education was a priority for us both, with young children we could not see how to do it formally. In the meantime, I used the skills I had garnered from a course in infant massage in Germany and taught local parents the benefits of touch, massage, listening to their babies and their own needs. I took a doula course and was honored and privileged to assist laboring women and help in the early establishment of mother-infant relationships. It was an experience like no other to be an integral part of the team of nurses, doctors, and midwives that cared for these women and babies. In a similar capacity, I worked for a short time as a peer breast feeding counselor for Women, Infants and Children, encouraging breast feeding and helping new mothers work through difficulties with feeding their babies and continuing to nurse when they returned to the workplace. These pursuits heightened my desire to offer a broader scope of care. In 2009 I was able to use my GI Bill to return to school with the intention to complete undergraduate and professional studies. With much research, introspection and reflection I came to realize that I want to become a physician assistant (PA). As the profession allows for a balance between medicine and family, I will be able to offer the best possible care for my patients and my family. For this reason, the role of the PA resonates with me. Being a PA allows for independent thinking and direct patient care, although it does not carry the full demands of being a physician. I am capable of functioning well autonomously, but I love being part of a team. The Navy first showed me this and I experience the joy and challenges of teamwork every day at home, and have witnessed it while shadowing physicians and PAs. An insatiable thirst for knowledge, passion for being the best that I can be and recognizing that this inherently means functioning collaboratively with others has led me to the PA profession. I am blessed to have the family support I do for my schooling, studying, volunteering and shadowing. I am excited to empower patients as part of the patient-PA-physician team, and thrilled that there will always be so much more to learn from the many other members of the health care system as a PA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmpetersen Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Wow, congratulations on your interviews!!! I remember reading this when you first posted it and I liked it, but it definitely is very personal. You are an eloquent writer and have interesting life experiences...I would have invited you for an interview,too :) Very cool about being a breast-feeding counselor -- I worked at WIC for awhile and loved it there. Again, congratulations and good luck on your interviews! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sastacey7 Posted August 27, 2011 Author Share Posted August 27, 2011 Thank you for the comment and the well wishes on the interviews! Just getting them was a huge relief- we all know what you (and your family if you have one) must put into getting that far! I used the analogy that while I am not counting my chickens before they hatch (the interview is by no means a guarantee I will get in), at least I know for sure that there are two eggs under the hen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corpsman2PA Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Thats a great PS. I know how you second guess when people tell you to add or subtract paragraphs, etc. My first paragraph isn't about being a PA, its about how i grew up. I've been told to remove it, i've been told to keep it. You did what you felt was right and it paid off! Congrats!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david89 Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 congrats on your interviews. can i ask where did you get invited to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alleycat Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 your PS is possibly the very best I've ever read. your story is riveting, your wordsmithing is outstanding. any program that turns you away ....well, i've no words for it. good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sastacey7 Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Thank you all for the comments- sorry that it took so long to get back to you about where I have been offered an interview. I don't mind at all sharing that information. I applied to 11 programs that included all of the NOVA Southeastern campuses, PCOM, USA, ATSU, Midwestern, and Arcadia (3 programs). A few of these don't start reviewing applications until Sept and then at least one (ATSU) was already full when I submitted my app a few weeks ago. I am interviewing at Midwestern and NOVA (Jax and Ft Meyers). I hope that it helped some people to read an essay that got a response from the adcoms. There are so many on here and I know for me it would have been really nice to see a few from previous years that got interviews/accepted. Mine is very personal, and from what I understand that is like playing with fire. But, it is me, and I just don't want to be anything else! Good luck to all of you out there and I hope that I will get to meet a couple of you at interviews or (fingers crossed) in class next summer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IdahoPA Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 I was one of the ones who edited your paper when you first posted it. Among my remarks, I suggested removing the first paragraph. If you asked me today, I'd advise the same thing. But it just goes to show that the readers of these papers are as varied as the authors. Kudos to including what you wanted in your PS and congrats on the interviews! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KateD Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 It takes courage to share your journey. And after experiencing the whole ps process myself... I know it's hard to put your "real journey and motivation into words. It's easy to get caught up in just trying to squeeze in what you think everyone wants to hear. But see... If you hadn't been true to yourself and shared this you would have robbed us of such a story!! Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akeith72 Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 I like it. You put the "personal" in personal statement. I just retired from the Navy so I can relate to some of your military experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sastacey7 Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 Hi guys, just an update- I have 6 interviews now- fingers crossed and holding my breath! I still have two schools that do not contact anyone until after October 1 and Oct 15. I truly hope to see you all have the success with getting interviews that I am thankful to have had! And- success for us all on interview day! The process is more taxing than I thought it would be, and feels more lonely as well. I am so glad that I found this site a few months ago- the support and sense of 'I'm not alone' has been great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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