An MPA degree is more than just a logical or natural progression for my scholastic path.  At my current academic level, I have quickly exhausted every path of challenge and promotion in my professional career and seek to affect change, on a larger scale.  Indeed, I aspire to fulfill a lead role in a hospital or government health agency, developing and implementing viable - sustainable - programs that address, particularly, medical pricing that reflect actual costs and not inflated tenfold for profit.  Moreover, there is a distinct need for greater efficiency within existing programs, a streamlining - giving credence to the availability of resources - that will facilitate increased health outcomes for the majority.  Healthcare reform brings with it the inherent role of being an agent for positive outcomes and progress, tangibly adding to the amelioration of lives.  Increasing my academic base of knowledge in existing healthcare systems, the corresponding social and political issues will enable me to alter the status of healthcare, particularly in the area of prescription drug regimens.  Through an academic relationship with XXXX and an MPA curriculum, I will be able to bring these aspirations to fruition, increasing my understanding of current legal issues, public policies, as well as marketing and resource development, skills and knowledge that will translate well into my future endeavors.

 For eight years, I have maintained a conceptual continuity in my academic and professional careers.  An MPA program will build logically upon my BS in Health Science, a scholastic program in which I concentrated on health care administration.  In truth, I have an excellent foundation in not only public health administration and policy, but also community health planning and evaluation, economics, bioethics, and health services and systems.  This background reflects the direction of an MPA program, one in which ethics, an appreciation of fiscal issues as well as a strong sense of community are integral to succeeding in the program, all of which my existing education encompasses.

 Serving my community in pharmacy for almost a decade has taught me its intricacies, a great deal about the medical industry, and insurance companies.  Much more than this, though, what I bring with me to the MPH program is the understanding that we must never lose sight of what matters most: the people we serve and those that will be served by our forthcoming policies.  I bring with me to the student body experiences in pharmacy that have been placed logically upon the backdrop of theoretical frameworks. 

 Frankly, my experiences have revealed a disturbing reality of an American healthcare crisis.  Even with such programs as Medicare, Medi-cal, and senior advantage pharmaceutical programs many of the people served by these endeavors live below the poverty line.  Many seniors strive to manage on their social security benefits, covering the basics of life, but simply cannot afford prescribed medications.  As a result, many opt to take their medications less often, or not at all.  Many of my clients looked to me, the only face for faceless companies, policies, and administration.  My community, my clients – neighbors – fuel the fire within me, the belief that we must do better.  To this end, to my tomorrow and their’s, I will do all I can to forever change the face of healthcare.