Aspects Related to Biological Studies - Admission/Application Essay Example

Biological Sciences Government (BSSG) Biological Sciences Government, an intricate web consisting of all aspects related with biological studies, presents students with the opportunity to interact with other students, the university, different professors as well as community professionals. Being a passionate member, I constantly asked myself how I could deliver more for the society, and soon enough I found my answers in emerging events held by the BSSG. Pursuing these opportunities was my way of showing that I really cared and also that having been provided such circumstances, I could do a great job, because this was indeed my true calling. I organized an American Red Cross blood drive event in which 50 people happily donated their blood. This made me realize that there are some people just like me who care and who are willing to sacrifice for the sake of complete strangers. The count of 150 lives that would be saved instilled in me a greater feeling of humanity and further drove me to perform better. My inner voice ushered me to volunteer the captaining of UMKC’s Pre-Health Relay for Life team either, and it further kept me boosted in supervising the whole event despite the tiredness my body felt. I also helped initiate the Science Pioneers Program, which was earlier present only for young girls, to young boys of middle school too. This would not only introduce all of them to the world of biology, but also appear as a significant career choice to those who, like me, have always dreamt of saving lives. When I was honored with the responsibility of being the President of BSSG, my critical thinking as well as problem solving skills were honed, as I had to plan various service and social events despite significant challenges that stood in the way. Some examples of these events include Harvesters Community Food Network, Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House Charities as well as Meet, Greet & Recruit, KC Zoo Trip etc. While the service events focused on helping people in need by providing them with basic amenities such as food and shelter, the social events aimed to inspire more students to join BSSG as well as enhance the understanding of all members by providing opportunities to explore sea life, African Safari etc. Islamic School of Greater Kansas City I am someone who thoroughly believes in gratitude and the concept of giving back, mostly because that is the environment I was brought up in. Islamic School of Greater Kansas City was my community high school and in the light of this deeply rooted concept, I have always been in touch with the school’s principal as well as the faculty members. One day after a talk with the principal, my heart inadvertently decided to take a stroll down memory lane, and I was instantly pulled into all those flashbacks where I was bonding with my football. I was enraptured in my thoughts when suddenly it occurred to me that football would be well loved by students at my school and I knew how there were no facilities currently available. I decided to make a proposal to the principal for getting ready a team of football enthusiasts and over summer I engaged in vigorously training them. Although it was harder than I thought, what kept me going on was the passion I saw in each of the student’s eyes, which reflected that fire which I had when I was their age. Our hard work paid off and I was a proud coach who led this team of under 13 children to championship in the Lees Summit League. The fund raising events that I held were a grand success and the school could afford a football field and related facilities, thus making way for a new under 18 team as well. I also spent time tutoring elementary, middle and high school students in Science, English and Math. I believe I did a good job, as my students were able to achieve a grade higher than their normal results. I think the success behind it was the way I could get along well with my pupil and their high relatability with me compared to elder teachers. I revealed my tricks and mnemonics to them and this further helped them to come up with their own ways of remembering things. Furthermore, I was able to make them grasp even difficult concepts by giving them real life examples. The whole experience was equally beneficial for me, as I now know how to deal with children of all age groups and I believe this will come handy in my medical future. The Medina Clinic Devoted to providing treatment facilities to patients at maximum possible low cost, the Medina Clinic is one charitable organization that I can say I have been proud to work in. I was assigned with having to take vitals of patients, properly record each patients’ history, allergy information as well detail what medication they were currently on. I took on this responsibility mainly because I wanted to get a first hand experience of the medical profession as well as have a glimpse of this complicated, but essentially crucial practice. To be completely honest, there were a few times when I felt that the pressure would completely gulp me, but seeing the patients and dealing with them simply made me look past my own sufferings. This was mainly because I realized that what I was going through was nothing compared to what they had to deal with in their lives. Each night I would come home and count my blessings, but at the same time I would also make it a point to remember them when I do my Ishah Prayer. I was overwhelmed that I could find such power in me to keep going even amidst such great responsibilities assigned to me. But my heart remained adamant, as it knew this was what my life was supposed to be about. This was exactly what I wanted to do with my life, give my all to benefitting the society and to be there for people who were in need. In addition to taking care of the patients, I also found myself constantly comforting their family members and giving them hope that everything would be alright soon. As I became the source of hope for these people, I myself was being equipped by an unmatched hope I never felt before in my life. I could see the bigger picture now and I felt proud of myself for having decided to work here after drawing inspiration by working in my family business. Being a member of the family business made me realize my responsibilities towards my family and through that, I developed the sense of responsibility towards my community. The role I played at the clinic has helped me realize my inner dream and made me understand the very aim etched in my soul. I will never forget what I learnt from my duration at the clinic and I believe these lessons will act as the foundation for my greater understanding of the medical profession. I have learnt to maintain honesty with the profession’s ethical standards as well as act as a link between patients and the members of the healthcare team in addition to learning how to interact and deal with patients. Pre-Medical Society With humble beginnings as merely a member in the Pre-Med Society, I then became the Webmaster and now currently hold the vice president position. This association brings together students and provides them with various volunteering and shadowing opportunities, thus helping them build clinical experience and gain other significant skills. Whereas first I only had to manage the Pre-Med twitter page, thereby providing information to members as well as public about meetings and upcoming events, my promotion drove me to actively work towards making meetings more interactive and encouraging non-members to be part of this group. I was also responsible for organizing mock interview trials and helping set up med student panels as well as physician shadowing network. By fulfilling my responsibilities as vice president I acquired the same knowledge as others, but was also equipped with various skills and the understanding of this profession being a life-long learning process. Peer Tutor (PT) and Undergraduate Learning Assistant (ULA) My commitment to being a PT in science and math as well as a ULA for General Biology 1 and 2 has emerged from challenges I faced as a student. Tutoring students at the UMKC has profoundly benefitted me by refreshing my knowledge regarding subject matters and introducing me to new information published in the newer textbooks. I was also able to encourage students to develop their own effective study strategies as well as enhance their understanding by providing them with good examples. In addition to guiding students during my time at the Biology Studio, I also initiated an online forum where I would post questions and encourage them to find out answers. Through this experience I developed effective leadership and communicative skills as well as problem solving skills due to challenges I overcame in reaching across to students with language barriers. Alpha Phi Omega (APO) The APO Fraternity is a closely-knit web of my colleagues who together with me have gained significant experience by engaging in several fraternity, campus, community as well as national service activities. My never ceasing enthusiasm and dedication again landed me a top post, thus making me a senator on the executive board. I actively helped in organizing and grading quizzes, managing members who were on probation, managing various activities and groups etc. In addition to being a fun filled experience, it also was quite useful as it helped me attain better leadership skills. I made a lot of different friends, which means I learnt to respect their different perspectives, values, cultures etc. It made me realize that deep down we are all human beings and that, just like me, the passion to save lives is what drives my fellow members forward. Ghando’s Sales (GS) GS, my family business, gave me the opportunity to start out as a cashier and stocker, but three years later, helped me develop so much that I was promoted to the title of manager. Working in this business was my choice as I realized my wish to give back to my family as well as stand up to my responsibilities to them. Our community is intrinsically a financially poor one and so our business focuses on providing goods to customers for a discount of about 75%. As customers come and go, I realize how much blessed I am, and I promise myself that I would run a clinic to provide free medical facilities to these poor people who have never been given the chance to acknowledge the beauty of life. This experience has given me new aims in addition to helping me attain important skills such as problem solving, crisis prevention, communication etc. Truman Medical Center (TMC) The TMC is basically a nursing home for aged people, which also integrates hospital facilities, thus taking care of all day to day as well as medical needs of the patients. Just as I have formed good bonds with children of my school, peers in my college, and middle aged customers through my family business, it was also important that I engaged in activities that would benefit the elderly. Therefore, I volunteered to work at the TMC, thus helping in organizing programs where they could interact and spend time with young children and also be provided various social opportunities. I also helped organize other events such as bingo day, movie night, rodeo day, pool day, picnics, water games and even monthly trips. Although taking residents outside in wheelchairs and helping them transport was a mammoth task, I found myself to be quite happy seeing them enjoy their chances to feel young and adventurous again. Saint Luke’s Hospital (SLH) This hospital assigned me with the task of patient rounds all across the hospital and here I would help patients with non medical needs in addition to bringing in the nurse in case of medical needs. This was a really good experience as I got the opportunity to be a spectator of the lives of so many patients who gladly shared their stories with me. It was quite amazing to find out that I had at least one thing in common with each patient and the smiles that spread on their faces when they got someone to talk to were simply priceless. I was their superman when they needed an extra pillow or blanket, water, juice, snack or simply the TV remote that was out of their reach. The best part was seeing the children pout when they would cunningly ask for something that was not allowed to them, not knowing I had separate lists of what each patient could have and could not. Non-Medical Volunteer Experiences This was one of the most exhausting but highly effective experiences, where I covered a wide variety of roles and tasks, thus learning a lot of new things along the way. I was able to participate in different types of volunteer events such as Meals on Wheels, Harvesters, Women’s Shelter, Special Neighbors, Earth day, painting the campus green by planting trees and cleaning fields etc. We also held awareness programs where we would address the importance of recycling to people as well as inculcating in them a sense of responsibility they should have in order to solve persisting environmental problems. In addition to planting over 4,000 trees the programs also focused on restoring 14 local urban prairies and other forms of sustainable beautification. Phi Kappa Phi (PKP) The PKP honor society aims in promoting academic excellence across various fields of higher education by helping members share the love for learning. Being the student vice president, my main responsibility was to publicize and promote the motto and aim of PKP, thus inviting more students to join. In addition to helping organize meetings and events and acting as a link between faculty and student members, I also had to fulfill the responsibility of an assistant public relations officer, web master etc. The various events that were held include Welcome Back BBQ, Induction Ceremony, Bioethics Symposium etc and for each event I was involved in the planning process, program development and giving welcome speech to guest speakers. I was able to enhance my communication and public speaking skills and also gain a new level of confidence in myself. Research The research work I did was related with human head and neck and its susceptibility to concussive traumatic brain injury (cTBI). I helped Dr. Chi-Ming Huang in the different elements of research such as literature studies, data analysis and report preparation. Once this experience was over I could walk away having full confidence and knowledge to conduct a research on my own. With relation to bioinformatics and computational biology I developed a strong introduction and also gathered tools that could be used for the same. My critical thinking skills were honed and I further developed better time management skills by finishing day to day tasks related with the research. I also developed good reasoning and logical thinking relevant with my field in addition to the new knowledge I gained. Shadowing For the shadowing experience, I have shadowed Dr. Mohammad Taha, Dr. Osama Ismael and Dr. Wael Mourad, specializing in internal medicine, emergency medicine and family medicine respectively. Although shadowing all three doctors equipped me with essential medical skills, my time with Dr Ismael was the best and most beneficial. This is due to the fact that I have always aspired to be an ER doctor. I understand how the patients coming to ER doctors can be in even unimaginable conditions, thus requiring a great presence of mind. Being an ER doctor would directly link me with being responsible for saving the patient’s life, thus this responsibility and passion drives me forward. When compared with other two doctors it was only here that I was able to pursue patients even after they were transferred to other specialists in other hospitals. Read More