Personal Statement: The Clarkson College

Personal Statement: The Clarkson College of Radiography and Medical Image

Clarkson College asks of its incoming students: "Is it you who will care for others?" My answer to this question is simple: "yes, it is I." I believe that becoming a health care professional must come from a sense of having a vocation, a calling to help others. Health care is not simply a job. To be effective as a healthcare provider, a person must have a desire to give back to the world, a desire that originates deep within the soul. I have witnessed the depth of dedication required of healthcare professionals from the point-of-view of one who has worked in a hospital environment for over twenty years. I hope one day that I will soon be able take the feeling that I have a similar vocation in the health care field and make it into my professional reality as a healthcare provider.

Although I have worked in a non-medical position at Clarkson Hospital, it was only during my travels through Russia and Ukraine over the course of the past seven years that I grew certain of my own vocation within the medical profession. By seeing the state of healthcare in another nation and another culture, I became convinced of the need to foster greater awareness about the deficits in healthcare internationally. I felt that there was a need that was not being addressed in these nations. I longed to fulfill that need.

A returned time and time again to these emerging nations as they experienced the difficult transition from capitalism to communism. I was able to become a trusted confident of many of the native people. I now call the residents of many cities of these Slavic countries friends, and I correspond with my friends regularly. My adaptability to the culture of another nation, and my ability to befriend persons from another culture is a further testimony to my desire to take my interest in healthcare and put it into active, practical action.

A realize that to become part of the medical profession in any capacity requires a selfless interest in others -- and a strong stomach. While visiting my friends in hospitals in Russia and the Ukraine, I found myself having to put on a brave face, so not to upset my friends, for fear of showing how appalled I was by the hospital conditions. These conditions were sorely lacking when compared to even basic American standards of care. Healthcare in the United States is far from perfect, but I gained a renewed appreciation for what services I was able to enjoy in America while traveling in Russia and the Ukraine. At least, when there are problems with providing care, in America steps are taken to address those deficiencies. Americans still have the capacity to be shocked.

A witnessed the most terrible, memorable example of how greed, corruption, and desperation can get in the way of the provision of adequate health care in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. There, I visited a children's hospital where all of the AIDS patients were under eight years old. When I asked how it was possible that such a large population of the afflicted were children, I was informed that their mothers were largely drug users and prostitutes. After the dissolution of communism, and the breakup of the Soviet Union, many persons were driven to desperate means to survive. Society and the formerly state-controlled healthcare system that provided some minimal guarantees of protection care and counseled preventative strategies to prevent infection. All of these had all broken down simultaneously in the 1990s. As if the plight of these children were not a great enough tragedy, the gifts and medical supplies brought to these unfortunate children had to be torn and opened so that they would not be stolen and sold by the staff to enrich themselves. This is a further example of how broken the healthcare system can become -- extending from parents, to children, to hospital administrators, to the doctors themselves.

Although I could not help every person whom I encountered in Russia, I began to realize that I had a passion to use medical knowledge to help such children all over the world. I wished to use my motivation and knowledge to ease the suffering of such children. A Bachelor of Science in Medical Imaging from Clarkson will give me the necessary combination of managerial and technical training to make this dream a reality.

After I earn my degree, I hope to return to Russia, perhaps through a program offered by the Peace Core. My Russian language skills are somewhat limited, but my knowledge and motivation to help this part of the world is strong.