Personal Application Statement by Ronald Romero
Sitting in my office twenty-three stories above the San Francisco Bay, I thought back to the struggling Miami neighborhood I had left behind. As a public financial consultant at The PFM Group, I had helped cities like Oakland and Las Vegas raise over $1 billion for schools and housing projects. Yet despite being proud of my work, I felt dissatisfied.
Growing up, I was raised by a single mother in a low-income and predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. A first generation Hispanic American and the first member of my family to attend college, I had watched my mother work multiple cleaning jobs each day to provide me with the opportunities she never had. After graduating from Harvard University, I joined PFM to provide her with financial security and to give back to disadvantaged communities like my old neighborhood. At PFM, I had achieved both: my family no longer lived day-to-day and the funds I helped raise went to community projects across California and Nevada. Yet I found that the impersonal nature of working in finance made me feel disconnected from the people I was helping. After two years of dedicating myself to helping others from afar, I realized that I wanted a profession that would allow me to have a more personal and direct impact on people’s lives.
As I sought out a profession with this type of involvement, I also found that I had missed using Science and Psychology in my work. Having been a Psychology major in college and a leader on my high school’s Math, Physics, and Chemistry teams, I longed to return to my academic roots. As I thought about possible science-based careers involving direct care, working as a physician for the underserved seemed like an ideal match. I confirmed this choice when I worked for the next two years at West Berkeley Family Practice, a community clinic with a patient base consisting mostly of uninsured and poor Hispanic and African-American families.
Through my role as a medical assistant, I saw how my skills, academic interests, and shared background could directly help others in the exam room. As a Spanish interpreter for many of the clinic’s Latino patients, I often communicated such sensitive information as positive HIV test results or a physician’s concerns about domestic abuse, which made my inter-personal abilities and experience vital parts of earning a patient’s trust. I remember sitting in front of Carla, a middle-aged Hispanic woman complaining of persistent body aches. A mother of five, Carla reminded me of many of the Latina mothers I had known as a child: proud and self-sacrificing. I told her that this was a space in which she could speak openly and I did my best to make her feel safe and understood. As the visit progressed and we probed deeper, Carla began to sob as she admitted to feeling depressed and overwhelmed by her family responsibilities. With a better understanding of the underlying mental health issues, the physician was able to use his scientific background and compassion to provide her with the resources and treatment she truly needed. By talking with patients like Carla on a daily basis, I realized that the background I shared with them was crucial in helping me establish a compassionate and trusting rapport.
Growing up without health insurance, I watched my mother pray everyday that nothing serious would ever happen to us. As I took patient histories, performed EKGs, and dressed wounds for uninsured patients from a variety of backgrounds at the clinic, I felt a special bond with them and understood their anxiety. While working in triage and eligibility I also helped our patients deal with common logistical challenges such as securing a CPAP machine for sleep apnea, arranging an emergency CT scan, and determining their eligibility for discounted services. Working on such projects with hospitals and pharmacies across the Bay Area, I realized that the strong analytical and problem solving skills I had developed at PFM were useful both in the exam room and in addressing some of the systemic issues uninsured patients face.
Loving my experience at the clinic, I continued my devotion to working with the underserved. As a board member of the Leadership Council of the San Francisco American Cancer Society, I organized free mammograms for uninsured Latina women and gave informational lectures to Hispanic cancer patients at San Francisco General Hospital. I also immersed myself in the academics of medicine by spending two years as a research assistant at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, where I studied infant development and learned about the crucial role of research in patient care. Additionally, I returned to school with a re-invigorated love for science, earning a 4.0 post-baccalaureate GPA.
Looking back on that uncertain day in my office at PFM three years ago, I feel like it was a lifetime ago. Since then, all of my clinical, academic, and research experiences have provided me with complete certainty that becoming a physician is the perfect path for me. I am excited to be returning to my roots in science and to have the opportunity to make a personal and direct impact on disadvantaged communities like my old neighborhood.
Read the students’ personal application statements:
Fasika Aberra
Lindsay Brown
Shaun Patel