This personal statement received interview invites from King’s College London, University College London, University of Manchester, Cardiff University and University of Nottingham.
More often than not, I would find myself staring at my grandfather helplessly while he took his post-meal medications. The pills made him nauseous, he said as he laid down on the sofa. His hands are also getting weaker; hyperkalemia and age settling in. The urge to curb these side effects for him became my stepping stone to delve into the ocean of pharmaceutical knowledge and fall in love with every bit of it. The answer to my grandfather’s predicament might be Trupti Ghatage’s cutting-edge, possible hypertension treatment. His peptide and non-peptide strategies target a different part of the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System, which promises less pronounced adverse side effects than available antihypertensive drugs. Our bodily chemistry, I deem, is akin to the universe itself, as innumerable yet-to-be-discovered reactions could occur in one. Ghatage’s finding proves just that. It fascinates me how pharmacology is an ever-developing area that holds the key to a myriad of more effective and safe treatments. This widens my perspective to many more possible discoveries that could hopefully benefit more patients in the future. As much as I’d like to contribute to the pharmaceutical research community, my priority will always be directly repaying society. I was brought up in a small village where there are very few professional pharmacists. Aiming to become a hospital pharmacist there, I am aware that scientific communication is a vital part of this job. I had the chance to put this skill into practice while volunteering at the National Science Centre. I hate to disappoint children who showed sheer interest in understanding the exhibitions. But explaining them to visitors with no scientific background is no easy task! It requires patience and accurate word choice so that the explanation is understood, which I later learned and applied during my second visit there. This challenge I faced further fuels my desire to pursue pharmacy. Knowledge without compassion is inhuman, they say. Spending four months with the trainees at a local community-based rehabilitation center taught me the meaning of compassion and more. It strikes me that interpersonal skills are vital as a pharmacist because interacting with patients of differing backgrounds is an integral part of the job. At first, communicating with the autistics did not come easy to me. Nonetheless, I sought guidance from the trainers and was soon able to converse almost naturally with them. Besides patient consultations, interpersonal skills are also essential in a healthcare setting where pharmacists work directly with other health professionals. Experience as the president of the English Language Society, a prefect and the assistant batch leader in high school taught me leadership skills as well as the importance of tolerance in a team. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective. Thus, I also acknowledge what I am getting into later in pharmacy school. Both practical skills and academic strength are equally important to excel in a pharmacy course. I participated in the Next in Chemistry Challenge, where I worked with my team to create an eco-friendly dye-adsorbent after rigorous trials in the laboratory. I also explored the research questions for my Biology and Chemistry Internal Assessments via experimental approaches. These equipped me with essential laboratory skills required in my study later. On the other hand, my exceptional academic results throughout secondary school and college proved my aptitude to excel in the theoretical aspect of the study. As a national scholarship holder and an International Baccalaureate student, intense and fast-paced academia is almost the norm for me. The pharmacy school syllabus should only be an extension of this. My hometown, my grandfather and my community drive my passion to pursue pharmacy and become both a researcher and a clinical pharmacist. Yet another treatment to discover, yet another person to aid, and I want to be a part of both.
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