Scholarship Essay Entry – Kelsey C.

The date was July 9, 2000. It was hot and muggy as I sat on a makeshift bench listening to my mom tell the story of a little boy who had come into the clinic earlier that morning with a foot that had been severely burnt in a fire. The boy had stepped on a sting ray while walking in the ocean and his foot had become infected. His parents took him to a witch doctor who had told the boy's parents to hold his foot in the fire to cure it.

I was in a remote village in the Fiji Islands and it was at that moment I decided I was going to become a medical missionary doctor. I had recently decided that I wanted to be a doctor so I could help people, but when I heard this story and realized the needs of the people who lived in underdeveloped nations I knew it was these people who I wanted to help.

Since then I have worked to accomplish this dream. I studied hard and I am currently going into my fourth year of undergraduate studies to complete my Bachelor of Science. From there I am planning on going into medical school and want to become a general surgeon. I have found that at times the long road to becoming a doctor can be quite discouraging. In an effort to keep this discouragement from overwhelming me I have gone on other mission trips to remind myself of why I am doing this.

My vision is to one day have a clinic in a remote location where people desperately need medical attention. I also want this clinic to be different from most clinics in that I want to be able to help people beyond giving them medical attention. As the cliché goes I want to give people a hand up not a hand out. I want to offer local people education on how to improve their health. Furthermore, I want my presences there to provide jobs for local people through helping out with the operations of the clinic. Finally, I want the clinic to be a place where people from developed nations can go and volunteer their time and in the process inspire them to reach out and help the world around them.