I feel that I am an excellent candidate for your residency program in Internal Medicine primarily as a result of my accomplishments. Most comfortable with the idea of giving my all to Internal Medicine and in no hurry to develop a specialty because I see GIM as the front line of the practice and, perhaps the most challenging of all, for the sheer diversity of cases with which one deal. I look forward to seeing a wide variety of patients, men, and women, young and old, rich and poor, and most of all, thriving on the sheer diversity of medical conditions. In just one week in the CTU, I cared for patients with Pancoast tumor, lupus cerebritis, endocarditis, and Goodpasture's, to name only a few. I am at my best when patients walk through the door with medical conditions that I learned very little about in medical school due to their rarity or infrequent appearance in patient populations. My academic background is in global health, and this has resulted in my cultivation of a very heavy respect for preventive medicine as well.
Now 30 years old and entering my final months of medical school at the University of XXX, I look back at my time spent in Africa as what will probably most distinguish me from other applicants to your competitive program, providing me with a sense of direction as well as accomplishment. I hold a Master’s Degree in Global Health, and I am an Indian- Canadian who has traveled extensively in South East Asia, the Gulf States, and the Arabian Peninsula—in addition to Europe, India, and Mexico. While I always learned a great deal from my travels, I feel strongly that I learned the most important things for a career in medicine--in the most creative ways--in Africa: how to be humble, the great power that comes with treating people with dignity, respect, and compassion, the importance of listening more than talking. I spent two years in Swaziland, six months in Botswana, and three months in Ghana. Ultimately, what I will learn by giving my all to your world-class team in Internal Medicine will serve me healthy decades down the road, when I return to Africa someday, listening to the people and working to develop programs in public health.
I co-founded and led the University of XXXX’s International Health Program (UXXXX) at the XXXX Academy of Medicine, building it from the ground up and running it for two years. My lifelong interest in and passion for participating in medical education was also very much strengthened by my experience helping to organize the Surgical Exploration and Discovery Program (SEAD), a summer program. This led directly to my starting the "Surgical Longitudinal Experience (SurgicLE)," which I also ran for two years.
I spent four months working with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in Ghana, helping to create a tennis program and mobilize funding in cooperation with the National Sports College (NSC), integrating physical activity into rural school programs, and teaching a series of workshops aimed at building sport-specific technical knowledge. I also served as an Aboriginal Youth Leader in northern Canada, leading a group of ten Inuit youth to Botswana for a three-month international development placement, collaborating with local leaders, schools, orphanages, and clinics to identify and execute community development projects; subsequently helping them integrate their new skills and experiences back into the Northern Canadian context. I served as an intern based in Swaziland, coordinating a national HIV/AIDS program called ‘Leaders in Training’ supported by the Canadian International Development Agency in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF, and the Ministry of Health, strengthening the coordination, implementation, and impacts of development programming. In Canada, I have assisted with the organization of local community and public health outreach events, as well as establishing a wheelchair tennis program at my local tennis club.
I have appreciated very much being part of the first class to register for medical school at the XXXX Academy of Medicine, the fact that it is a satellite campus of the University of XXXX, because of how the university put such a massive effort into making our program a success. The communal nature of our experience helped me to develop independent learning skills and a creative team spirit that fostered a blossoming of my leadership skills. I have enjoyed a great deal of independent hands-on experience in medical school, which I see as an excellent pedagogical strategy, forced to rely on our own initiative in the absence of many residents around to learn from. We also had the chance to put our leadership potential to work, starting new programs and building new student organizations.
I especially like the idea of completing a residency in Internal Medicine at the U of XXXX because I am completing medical school here and have had the opportunity to get to know so many incredible staff and residents. I see the options for education as virtually limitless in Toronto, and I take particular delight in studying the unique culture and demographics of each hospital where I work, savoring the experience of each one. St Michaels is quite different from Toronto Western, for example, and both are a world away from TrilliumHealth Partners in Mississauga. From Physicians like Dr. XXXX, I have learned how to approach patients with an ever-more humanizing kindness, and from Dr. XXXX, the importance of a substantial differential.
I relish the diversity of patients from across XXXX from refugees and the homeless population to complex transplant patients and complicated cases in obstetrical medicine. I see no other GIM program that can offer the breadth that the U of XXXX has. I admire the long tradition of priority emphasis on education in your program and I would love to continue my education at U of XXXX in the Internal Medicine Program and feel that the diversity of my experience and my leadership potential makes me an excellent fit.
