From January of 2002 through the end of October of 2013, I served most faithfully and diligently as a doctor in my native Sri Lanka, immigrating permanently to Canada in 2014. Since then, I have been building new career directions and preparing myself for a return to the workforce as a health care professional. I have been studying full time in a variety of areas that will help me to excel as a graduate student here in Canada, retraining for a new professional role, including Intensive Medical English, First Aid & CPR-HCP, and Emergency Medical Responder.
Looking closely at my options, I am now fully convinced that I am the best fit as a non-traditional graduate student in the University of XXXX’s Physician Assistant Studies Program. Even though, I have also passed the Evaluating Examination for the Medical Council of Canada, I do not seek to become a leader in medicine, especially since I am a devoted family person. Rather, I seek to give my all to the practice of medicine in Canada in a support role; first, by distinguishing myself as a student in your master's program in Physician Assistant Studies at the University of XXXX.
I have now served as a highly enthusiastic and diligent volunteer for almost one year and plan to continue volunteering my time with the Befriender Program, a research program conducted by the University of XXXX Department of Psychiatry that connects volunteers with autistic clients and studies the results. We maintain a log of the kinds of activities that are selected according to the interest of both the volunteer and the client: a picnic one day, movie the next, sports activities, etc. At the end of the study, they asked us to complete a feedback questionnaire about our experience.
I especially enjoy the department conferences that we have each month where we discuss creative strategies to help us meet our goals and to address any issues that we are facing at the time. My participation in the Befrienders Program has helped to facilitate my bonding with the community, making many new friends, particularly the family members of our clients, meeting people from other organizations with related interests, all the while learning a great deal about how things work in Canada, generally speaking.
Born and raised in the countryside of Sri Lanka, my father a farmer and my mother a homemaker, life was hard, full of chores and responsibilities especially for me since I was the oldest. This helped me to become disciplined and organized, however, and someone who is especially devoted to my own children, my daughter who is 10 and my sons, 9 and 5. As my career develops and I gain more experience here in Canada following completion of your distinguished PA Program at XXXX, I look forward to serving with medical missionary teams to disaster areas in the Developing World, perhaps returning at some point to Sri Lanka on a professional capacity.
We lived through 30 years of war in Sri Lanka, and we all suffered a great deal as a result. A terrible Tsunami also hit my homeland on the 26th of December 2004 and thousands of people died with hundreds of thousands more displaced. That was the most memorable epoch of my life so far since at that time I was working as the Regional Malaria Officer for the Western Province of Sri Lanka and I played an important administrative role in helping tsunami victims, working alongside a variety of local and international organizations. Later, when there was a terrible flood in Sri Lanka and I was already in Canada and could not return, I felt a terrible tug at my heart when I watched the images of the victims on the television.
In addition to completing all the prerequisites for the PA program at XXXX, I also have 8 years of experience practicing Medicine – half of that time in Forensic Medicine - and more than ten years of active participation and experience in preventive and curative health care, actively participating to help with community social projects. I have advanced administrative skills and always face up to the challenge, excelling in stressful conditions.
Thank you for considering my application.
Transformative Journey Master's PA Personal Statement
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