Is my diversity idea a stretch?

[661874]

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I grew up in rural Alabama but as an Asian-American rather than someone who was white. There, my family and I managed to form really strong bonds with our community and our neighbors, which has served as a lifelong testament for me as to how it's possible to connect with anyone no matter what differences might exist on the surface. In other words, we're more similar to each other than might lead us to believe.

And so I certainly have the perspectives that I got from living in a heavily opioid/smokig/obese community with terrible healthcare access, but what's more important to me is working with my classmates to not see healthcare in rural or urban undeserved communities or as being largely different, but instead trying hard to see the many ways that they likely align.


I'm applying primarily to research-based schools, most of which (according to MSAR) do not feature any students in their first year classes who come from my state, so I think I'm onto something.

I think what I'm struggling with here is how I kind of relay all of this without bringing up politics. Because a major reason people see rural communities as being different from urban communities is political affiliation. And that's kind of been a major roadblock in crafting health policy—rural communities think policies are made to benefit urban communities (which is sometimes true).

Any thoughts?

 

[sunshine859]

Growing up in rural Alabama is diverse enough. Just talk about your experiences there (great diversity essay!) but don't stretch it to this "we're all alike" political thing. You just need to talk about how you'll bring a diverse perspective--aka, you've seen rural poverty, opioid epidemic.

 

[LizzyM]

Growing up in rural Alabama does bring an aspect of diversity to the class and what you might want to do is think about how you can be the voice for people like your neighbors when discussions about health policy, health education and the like come up.