Medical School Personal Statement: Passion, Experience, and Ambition

This medical school personal statement details the author's lifelong ambition to become a doctor, deeply rooted in a family with a rich medical background. The author recounts early exposure to medicine through family members, including a grandfather who was a pioneering pediatric hematologist, and the influence of watching medical documentaries. Personal experiences, such as the death of an uncle due to an unwillingness to seek medical help, have further fueled the author's desire to bridge the gap between patients and physicians. The statement highlights volunteering experiences at hospitals and the impact of witnessing the ongoing conflicts in Syria, the author's parents' homeland, as key drivers. The author expresses a commitment to selfless service, both in the US and abroad, aiming to save lives and carry forward a family legacy of medical excellence. The essay concludes with a strong affirmation of the author's destiny to pursue a medical career.

Running head: MEDICAL SCHOOL PERSONAL STATEMENT 1
Medical School Personal Statement
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

MEDICAL SCHOOL PERSONAL STATEMENT 2
Medical School Personal Statement
Over the years, I have grown this relentless passion to become a doctor since I was a
small kid. I was brought up in a family with a rich medical background. My parents always
mentored us the road to becoming global doctors. They have packed our home library with
medical books and always help us reach out to any medical training opportunity in the city. My
grandfather was one of the pioneering Syrian Pediatric hematologist and the Damascus
University medical school president in Syria. I have two other brothers pursuing Medicine as
their career, Omar Shwaiki a student at North East Ohio Medical University and Ziad Shwaiki a
medical student at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. My uncle Dr. Ali
Shwaiki is a currently a practicing Hematologist-Oncologist in Kansas City (Kirkwood et al.,
2013). Sometimes, I even tend to believe that the medical passion is a seed implanted in us
through our DNA.
As a small kid, I remember the frequent times I visited my grandfather during his free
weekends. He would make me sit next to him watching videos about the greatest surgeons in the
world and their impacts on humanity as he did his extra hematology research. In one of the
documentaries, I remember Dr. Ben Carson pursuing a surgery, a live or death surgery that was
very successful (Kusurkar et al, 2013). And when my grandmother invited us for meals, she
would always address us as doctors which made me feel like one of those great medics I saw in
the documentaries (Erikson, 2013). This inspired in me the beauty to leave the medical legacy so
that in the future other kids could be watching my documentaries.
In one of the most heartbreaking moments in 2014, my uncle died of heart attack while in
Morocco. He had experienced consistent chest pains for a long time but he was not willing to
share the feeling with a doctor. I hold a belief that he died of fear to see a doctor who would
probably have a healing solution to his illness. This paused a challenge to me and triggered in me
the desire to become a professionally approachable physician (Borges et al, 2013). In my future,
I want to break any barriers between the patient and their doctor. I would want to make the
hospital an open home for everyone where they feel free and comfortable to air their health
problems.
Like any other concerned parent, my mother has impacted in me a spirit of compassion
and making our every free minute count in helping others if not acquiring new skills. So during
my free holidays, I always look for volunteering opportunities in the hospitals and homes for the
disabled (Lefevre et al, 2013). In one of my holidays, I was lucky to get a volunteering
opportunity at the Mercy Medical Centre from where I spent over 122 hours at the patient’s
medical wards. In another holiday I got another 40 hours volunteering opportunity at Aultman
Hospital. My interaction with the patients and the nurses there built in me the determination to
pursue the dream and ease their pains (Huston et al., 2013). On my own, I have done 55 hours of
shadowing, 40 of which I was at the local hospital here in Canton, Ohio and the other 15 hours
under Dr. Tomas Nguyen, a very talented leader who lives to see his trainees become better
physicians.
The countless deaths happening in Syria, the home to my parents, a result of the ongoing
wars is another call that has taken my heart to become a physician. Imagining that there are
likelihoods that some of my parents’ friends and relatives are victims of these wars, it is
becoming so painful seeing all those lives varnish. I believe a committed physician would help
to save a good percent of the deaths. For this reason, I want to selfless work both in the US and

MEDICAL SCHOOL PERSONAL STATEMENT 3
abroad saving as many lives as I can. All these experiences and people around me have
ruthlessly grown my ambition and desire to live the medical career in my next future. And by
the fact that everyone is a product of their environment, I totally believe that my life is destined
to be a doctor. Every morning I wake up, I tell it to myself I am here to follow the footstep of my
grandfather and uncle to become the world’s best physician.

MEDICAL SCHOOL PERSONAL STATEMENT 4
References
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Huston, C. J. (2013). Professional issues in nursing: Challenges and opportunities. Lippincott
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