Biographical Essay Personal Statement Samples

My name is Hoyi Tsui and I was born in 1991 in Hong Kong, China. While I was born in Hong Kong, I immigrated with my family to the United States when I was seven years old and have since lived in Salisbury, Maryland, which I consider my home. I always had a passion for biology and medicine and was thrilled to learn that a career in pharmacy was within my grasp after searching through a local community college catalog in 20011. Not long after this discovery, I found great success as a student in the college’s “Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam Preparation” course. After completing the course and passing the exam, I became a nationally certified pharmacy technician and secured a position at Rite Aid a month later. Since this time, my career trajectory and personal life have been in the service of advancing my professional role in the pharmacy profession.
In the 5.5 years I have spent as a pharmacy technician, I have gone from wide-eyed rookie pharmacist to a highly capable professional hungry to further develop my skills through post-graduate education. As a pharmacy technician, through careful collaboration with my mentor, Anthony, I regularly experience the inter-workings of a pharmacy on an intimate level. This experience includes logistical components, such as counting and dispensing pills and understanding the decision-making process to ensure the highest possible levels of patient safety. Additionally, as a pharmacy technician I have had the privilege of learning the informal aspects of the profession, most notably the most appropriate way to conduct oneself professionally with patients. Being trilingual -- speaking Cantonese, Mandarin, and English –I have even been able to aid Anthony by providing direct translating assistance for patients, including my own father.
Although I value many things in my life, the thing that I value the most is empathy. In the pharmacy profession, the ability to have empathy and understanding for others is not only a virtue, but is also a critical component of the job. As a pharmacy technician, I remember one instance when Anthony recognized that a patient that had been prescribed Azithromycin was taking Citalopram. The combination of these drugs is potentially life-threatening because of irregular heartbeat. Of course, Anthony fulfilled his professional responsibility and contacted the doctor about the interaction; yet, the sensitivity that he was able to inform the patient about the needed drug change went beyond mere professional obligation and additionally demonstrated a degree of empathic understanding.
A pharmacist is more than an individual that fills prescriptions, but is also someone that can have meaningful interactions with community members regarding the drugs they are taking to improve their health. A pharmacist is also oftentimes the only healthcare provider in the neighborhood that an individual can talk to about drugs and medication without making an appointment and because of this his or her role is particularly amplified. However, when a patient does not feel comfortable talking to a pharmacist or a pharmacist does not feel empowered to fully interact with community members, many of the informal – yet highly critical aspects – of healthcare service are not implemented. As many times patients are low income and have not received a higher education, they may feel intimidated to talk to their pharmacist about important medical questions they have. In these instances, a pharmacist becomes just another static input along the healthcare supply chain. In these situations, the patient and community suffers. Conversely, when a pharmacist practices empathy and cultivates a strong understanding and appreciation for his or her community members, this individual is able to provide the type of service that is critical to offering top-tier in the healthcare in the modern world, making empathy an essential value.
My personal qualities and experience will add significant value to the School of Pharmacy at UMES. My formal education experience at Salisbury allowed me to achieve great intellectual knowledge that will not only facilitate my own learning at UMES, but also ensure I make frequent and meaningful contributions to my learning community. I have successfully completed advanced courses in chemistry and biology, finding particular success collaborating in the class projects and lab assignments in these courses. My superior teamwork abilities and attention to detail, such as when I worked with a partner on a series of experiments to purify lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) from chicken breast muscle, are skills that I will bring to heighten learning throughout the UMES student body.
Having a strong professional background in a pharmacy as a pharmacy technician will also allow me to provide insight to my fellow classmates who may have spent their professional lives in different fields. I believe that while higher education forms the structure of a pharmacist’s practice, the practical tasks and informal connection with community members are essential pieces that constitute the profession. While I fully embrace the American way of life, my personal background will allow me to add a level of diversity to the UMES student body. Having an intercultural perspective does not only provide me an increased level of understanding when dealing with people from my birthplace. Additionally, the experience of navigating my own cultural identify within the United States and the challenges that initially entailed has provided me with an increased level of sensitivity for the challenges that patients of all cultures and socioeconomic spectrums face when attempting to traverse the oftentimes confusing healthcare system. Ultimately, I can bring this empathy and multi-level understanding of the pharmacy profession to my studies at UMES to augment the learning experience of my fellow students and make them even successful pharmacists than they otherwise would have been.