This blog post examines how club activities and volunteer experiences are interpreted and structured as major understanding, professional ethics, and practical capabilities when writing academic plans for health and medical fields.
Writing about academic experiences and reflections
“Staying up all night reading chemistry and physics textbooks”
The very first class I took in high school was a career orientation lecture. It emphasized the importance of defining one’s dreams, ultimate goals, and the education and studies needed to achieve them. This process helped me set my career direction and develop a detailed plan to pursue the right studies. My detailed plan centered on diligently studying science core subjects, including chemistry and physics. The reason was that my career plan was in the medical field, and I believed mathematics and science learning were the most crucial areas.
I decided to choose chemistry and physics as my elective subjects for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) to pursue a major in medical statistics. So, I pre-studied both subjects and began preparing for the CSAT starting in my first year. My preparation method wasn’t anything special. My goal was to read the textbooks thoroughly and ensure I understood every concept and term presented within them. Studying chemistry and physics was particularly enjoyable because, rather than just memorizing dry theories, there were many opportunities to connect the material to real-world phenomena and experiences. For example, I would link textbook content to the chemical reactions involved in making kimchi or the preparation of alkaline foods for health.
I also conducted experiments, such as testing the pH of my own urine using reagent reactions or observing the properties of liquid nitrogen to create molecular cuisine by lowering temperatures to extremely low levels. In physics, I deepened my understanding of textbook content by researching practical applications like heating a stubborn bottle cap to open it or finding useful ways to utilize static electricity in daily life. Studying science through real-life examples and experiments like these not only accelerated my comprehension but also ensured the knowledge stuck in my mind long-term. Linking it to actual experiences made science textbooks feel like fantasy novels that never got boring, even when reading them all night—a truly rewarding approach.
Major School Activities and Reflections
“Diverse Experiential Activities Through the Medical Club”
Upon entering high school, I established a career plan and set the specific aspiration of becoming a clinical statistics specialist. Clinical statistics pertains to activities related to medicine, pharmacy, and health fields. To pursue this, I joined the Medical Research Club as my school activity. At the time, I wanted to gain extensive experience related to my future major and also wanted to share the experience with friends who, like me, had set their sights on the medical field. Therefore, in the medical research and health-related club, I collected knowledge and information about various diseases, researched the current status of treatment methods for diseases, and gathered cases of newly developed treatment technologies, accumulating data within the club.
This accumulated data was shared by uploading it to the online community site operated by the club. Through these activities, I was able to broaden my medical knowledge and expand my understanding of biology and chemistry. During the data collection process, we held discussions and analyzed papers, but we also conducted experiments simultaneously. There was a strong desire to engage in practical learning through new experiments that weren’t easily accessible during regular science classes. Therefore, we prepared hearts, lungs, and eyes from cows and pigs for dissection experiments, allowing us to visually confirm the functions of bodily organs and structures. The dissection experiments, in particular, were experiences we rarely get to have, making us feel one step closer to our goal of becoming future medical professionals.
During our club activities, we also researched diseases like childhood cancer and leukemia, which children have a low probability of contracting.
This process introduced us to news about young patients suffering from incurable diseases, which filled us with sorrow. This led us to launch a street campaign to help fund their treatment. The campaign was planned and executed by club members through consultation, following a detailed activity plan. We operated booths and made picket signs ourselves, striving to gather public attention and support. The funds raised were donated to a specialized treatment center for pediatric cancer patients. This connection led to an industry-academia collaboration between the hospital and our club.
Following this collaboration with the local hospital, we gained opportunities to visit the field and receive various medical trainings. On one occasion, we visited a rehabilitation center specializing in CPR practice, where we learned rehabilitation therapy and exercise therapy methods and then performed them ourselves. We then returned to school with the results of these practices and conducted activities where we introduced the content of our activities to friends in regular classes and demonstrated them directly. In this way, the members active in our club were considered among the best in the school in terms of medical information and knowledge, with no shortcomings. We also accumulated experience by attending every medical-related event and health-related event held on campus without fail. Through participating in these diverse experiential activities, I also learned an important mindset for aspiring medical professionals: a spirit of service to society.
Cases of Care, Sharing, and Cooperation and Reflections
“Conducting Community Service at Nursing Homes and Daycare Centers”
Our health teacher worked hard to broaden the scope of the medical club’s activities. She created a small group within our club called the ‘Healing Volunteer Corps’. I joined this group because I had always been interested in the field of medical volunteering. The teacher told the members of the volunteer team that the mindset of a volunteer should never be one of half-hearted participation. Instead, she said we must study volunteering just as we study regular subjects.
Under his guidance, we visited hospitals directly to receive specialized training in elderly health management, first aid, and CPR. During this time, I underwent CPR training twice and acquired knowledge about health management strategies for the elderly. Our subsequent volunteer site was a nursing home, which we visited regularly every other week. We paired up one-on-one with the elderly residents as we had been trained and prepared to do, and began our service by giving each of them hand and foot massages. After that, we all gathered together and conducted activity-based games for dementia prevention, as we had prepared beforehand. It was immensely rewarding to see the elderly residents participate actively and enjoy themselves without any sign of annoyance.
The second place I began volunteering was a local childcare center. Here too, I formed one-on-one connections with young students and carried out volunteer activities like academic tutoring. My tutoring covered health classes, safety education, sex education, and medical/science education. These curricula had pre-made manuals, so I conducted lessons aligned with the textbooks, striving to explain in language the children could easily understand.
The children responded well to my efforts, asked many questions, and listened attentively to what I said, for which I was truly grateful. Meeting these children regularly at the nursing home and childcare center gave me a deep sense of fulfillment and was a precious opportunity to learn the true spirit of service as a healthcare professional.
Efforts and Preparation Related to Motivation and Career Plans
“A Clinical Statistics Specialist with Strong Communication Skills”
The importance of statistics in the fields of medicine and pharmacy is steadily increasing. As the demand for professionals with specialized knowledge in medical statistics grows, I would like to introduce myself as a prospective applicant aspiring to become a clinical statistics specialist. My interest in the medical field began upon entering high school, and to clarify my career path, I actively participated in a medical research club. Concurrently, I undertook foundational studies to enter the field of clinical statistics. Since statistics relies heavily on mathematics and social survey techniques, I ensured my foundational studies in science and mathematics were thorough.
After entering university, I plan to build upon this foundational knowledge to study statistics more intensively. Through the core curriculum, I will practice applying statistical techniques to the point of being recognized as an expert. To gain knowledge in the medical field, I will utilize minor or double major programs. I will also gather information about the clinical statistics field, acquire knowledge about pharmacy and pharmaceuticals, and deepen my understanding of nursing and biotechnology. Considering that clinical statistics lies at the intersection of mathematics, nursing, pharmacy, and biotechnology, I will pursue graduate studies. During graduate school, I will major in biostatistics and epidemiological statistics, engaging in interdisciplinary learning.
By analyzing and investigating research topics at the intersection of biotechnology and statistics during my master’s and doctoral programs, I will transform into a true clinical statistician. After completing my doctoral studies, I will work as a statistical researcher in a clinical trial laboratory. Specifically, I will analyze the results of clinical trials for pharmaceuticals using statistical theory and techniques to demonstrate the drugs’ efficacy and safety. While professional expertise is crucial, I believe communication skills are equally important. As a statistics expert, I aspire to become someone who can build and maintain strong bridges of communication with other medical professionals.
