Hi, I'm struggling on picking topics for diversity/what unique experiences have shaped you. Any feedback is welcome!
Prompts from different schools I'm looking at:
Tell us how your past experiences and/or challenges have defined you
What is your experience with diversity, health equity and social justice?
What unique life experiences, personal attributes and/or perspectives will you bring as part of the incoming class?
Current topics I'm thinking about (trying to pick one):
1. Growing up with immigrant parents and the cultural values they have instilled within me such as community, dedication. Visiting their villages where they grew up in China and seeing the lack of access to healthcare that eventually led my grandfather to pass away from untreated diabetes and flu complications. Then talk about how this inspired me to help underserved populations
2. Growing up queer within the Asian American culture and church community which was not accepting of my identity. How I ended up meeting other students within the queer Asian American community who faced similar issues. Then talk about my experiences have led me to want to create safe spaces within medicine and advocate for affirming healthcare. The only thing with this topic is that I haven't done a lot of activities to advocate for the LGBTQ so I feel like I don't have enough to talk about to write for like 500 words. Also not entire sure how to write about this without exposing the mental health challenges I've had as a teen.
3. Talk about my experiences on the club rowing in college and the lessons I have learned in resilience, dedication, teamwork, and leadership. I talked about this as one of my MME on my primary app. Thought I could mention how I noticed the lack of diversity on the team and worked to lower membership costs to make it more accessible for other students to join. And maybe tie in community outreach programs we did and how I value community engagement in a medical school.
