As a historian of Latin America and someone who lived for years in Nicaragua, helping the following applicant with her Personal Statement of Purpose in Epidemiology was a special privilege for me:

Born and raised in Nicaragua, and now completing a master’s degree in Public Health at the University of XXXX, I hope to find the necessary funding to pursue a Ph.D. in Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology. It is my life’s goal to return to my country to help improve health care for my people. The doctoral degree is both knowledge and power, which are both necessary to be able to successfully take on the intractable public health challenges that afflict my poor little country that has brutally suffered for so long, warfare and natural disasters leaving us the poorest country in Latin America beyond Haiti—and not that far behind. More than anything, a doctoral degree is for me, the leverage needed to undertake leadership positions. In my country maybe one in five hundred Nicaraguans has access to decent health care and those are the ones that can afford to pay for treatment at our outstanding private hospitals or seek treatment in countries with better health care. In many cases public hospitals are a death trap with little medication available, overworked and underpaid physicians, and supporting staff with abysmal levels of training.

At only 23, especially for someone from Central America, I have made great strides in my education - especially because my institutions have funded me all along. I have worked hard out of love for the children of my country, since so many of them die each year from an array of vaccine-preventable diseases such as whooping cough and pneumonia. My undergraduate choice of microbiology as a major with a minor in chemistry were a result of my experiences growing up in my country and anticipating graduate study in public health. I will be completing my M.P.H. this coming April of 2011.

As a clinical microbiologist intern at the National Diagnostic and Reference Center in Managua I was able to get an in-depth look at the health system in my country. We were in charge of processing samples from all public hospitals in the country. These hospitals shipped their samples to us since they could not undertake the task of diagnostic microbiology because they lacked the most basic diagnostic tools. There are extremely high levels of antibiotic resistance in our public hospitals with strains of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and a notoriously high prevalence of multi-resistant Pseudomonas aeuruginosa. In these circumstances people go to the hospital only to die. I saw hundreds of patients come in sick and undernourished just to face further insult from nosocomial infections. Yet, I have learned as a graduate student in public health is that these problems can be resolved through simple interventions such as encouraging health workers to wash their hands to block the transmission of microbes from one patient to the next. I was excited to learn that the incidence of dengue can significantly be reduced by eliminating standing water and therefore blocking the reproduction of the Aedes aegypti mosquito

I want to learn how to design and direct research so as to be able to address the complex array of public health issues facing my country. With a Ph.D, I can become a leader in improving my nation’s health system by translating research into interventions in hospitals. These interventions may range from attempting to wane the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in health centers to implementing new diagnostic tools. With no research staff to go to the field and collect data, epidemiologic analyses can only be done in hospitals and every patient that comes in becomes a data point. I am convinced that a Ph.D. from your highly esteemed program will allow me to fulfill my goals and assume an instrumental role in the development of more effective health care systems for Nicaragua. The University of XXXX has a wide array of international missions and research in underdeveloped countries, for example, Dr. XXXX is working on waterborne diseases in Ecuador. This will allow me to build a strong network of knowledgeable people in the field. I already had a chance to interact with faculty and students who are developing projects in Latin American through the Center of Global Health in which I am a student associate. People working in these places can also elucidate how epidemiologic data can be gathered in underdeveloped countries which lack extensive databases and registries.

My epidemiology background has made me well informed and sensitive to the need for collecting sound data and the way in which this is of such fundamental importance for making solid advances in epidemiology. I found collecting molecular data on Streptococcus pneumonaiae samples from 1998, to be especially exciting since this was at a time prior to the implementation of the multivalent vaccine. This investigation gives us valuable insight on how vaccines can change the distribution of prevalent serotypes on a population. In additions, it helps us better approach the question of what allows some serotypes to be more prevalent than others and ultimately why some pathogens are better able to colonize our bodies and more likely to make us sick. 

Helping applicants to graduate programs in the area of epidemiology allows us to have the privilege of making important contributions to saving innocent human life, especially as concerns environmental and public health issues in less-developed countries, our central focus at www.statementsofpurpose.com. We are especially concerned with in the way in which less-developed countries, in particular, need to become more self-reliant through the ongoing, sustainable development of crucial, new environmental protection and public health policies, practices, and education. It is an honor for us to help those who will have an influence in the future over critically important policy decisions in the allocation of resources for epidemiological research. We have now helped dozens of applicants in the area of epidemiology who are now strategic decision makers and advisers for non-profits, international agencies, working for national governments or staying engaged with cutting-edge epidemiological research in both public and private sectors. It will be an honor for us to assist you as well in the fulfillment of your professional dreams in epidemiology.

My study has gone a long way to solidify my determination and to arouse my scientific curiosity concerning the type of research that I hope to conduct in Nicaragua in the future. I have learned the importance of developing research to be able to support intervention proposals. For example, a molecular and serotypic analysis of the prevalent serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae in a population where no vaccine has ever been implemented like in my country is the necessary evidence to introduce a vaccine. Despite the political and economic issues behind vaccine implementations, the first step is to perform the research to approximate the impact and the cost of a vaccine which in a country like mine could prevent so many deaths, especially of children, that occur as a result of meningitis, particularly in rural areas.

As a Master´s student, I have become adept at research not only through courses but also by having the privilege of serving as a research assistant in the department of pediatrics and infectious disease at XXXX under the instruction of Dr. XXXX. To be able to trace the logic and order in which the scientific method unfolds to allows us to approach a scientific inquiry by working side by side with extremely knowledgeable individuals like Dr. XXXX has been the most enriching learning experience in my life. My research experience has helped me to conceptualize how molecular techniques allow us to address a wide array of research questions in areas of my interest: methods of acquisition and control of antibiotic resistance, virulence factors in communicable diseases, vaccine implementation and diagnostic techniques. The University of XXXX has several instructors that I hope to learn from, including Drs. XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX as well as XXXX.

In conclusion, I want to point out a final event that has influenced my career path which is the “brain drain” that I have seen first-hand in my country. I truly believe that a lot of the social problems faced in many underdeveloped countries are the result of our young professional refusing to stay and develop our own countries, allured by monetary rewards elsewhere. Even though I sympathize with these individuals, I never intend to be one of them. If there is no epidemiologic infrastructure in Nicaragua it is also the result of the lack of professionals to undertake the task of doing epidemiology. I want to wage war against antibiotic resistance in hospitals and against vaccine-preventable diseases in Nicaragua. This war can only be fought with trained personnel driven by the love for their people and I know that I am not alone in this endeavor. Please give me an opportunity to become a leader in public health and save countless lives in Nicaragua.