Personal Statement
I have been taking college classes longer than most of my classmates have been alive with the end goal of finding my niche in higher education that feels like where I belong. I’ve been a paramedic for nearly a quarter of a century, and while I have thoroughly enjoyed the job it has been just that, a job. I have done all of the things – I have worked in a city when the homicide rate was top 5 in the nation per capita, I have been a set medic for a major Hollywood movie, I worked as a mountain medic at a ski resort for a couple of seasons, and even flew as a fight medic for many years. I have a touch of PTSD, and the dark sense of humor that goes along with it, but thankfully I escaped the injuries. I enjoy helping people but the physical and emotional toll of being a paramedic is immense.
Many people have tried over the years to convince me to go into nursing, but it’s not where my heart is and comes with the same physical and emotional toll that being a paramedic does; just better pay and you get to be indoors in bad weather. I thought physical therapy would be a good alternative and finally declared Health Physical Education and Exercise Science (HPEX) as my major After a stint in physical therapy after a weightlifting injury though, I realized my second career was not going to be as a physical therapist. During the same semester as my PT I needed a “Global Perspectives” class for HPEX and Anthropology looked like the most interesting option. I was hooked. Before the end of the semester, I changed directions and declared a new major in Anthropology.
While I still feel new to the program I have learned a great deal and look forward to continuing my education after graduation. I thoroughly enjoyed Cultural Anthropology with Dr. Cristopher Brooks and am hopeful I will be able to take the class on Colonialism he is working on. Dr Christopher Stevenson has provided a wonderful foundation in Archaeology through his classes Introduction to Archaeology and Archaeological Theory. Dr. Matthew Pawlowicz expanded our minds in Theory in Cultural Anthropology, and Dr. Bernard Means has furthered my working knowledge of archaeological fieldwork in Archaeological Methods and Research design. I will also be working with Dr. Means in the summer of 2023 through the VCU Archaeology Field School Exploring Fort Germanna and the Enchanted Castle near Fredericksburg, VA.
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In my time at VCU I have also had the opportunity to research areas of cultural interest including folk religion and magic of the early settlers and will be presenting at the VCU Poster Symposium for Undergraduate Research and Creativity. My poster “What’s in the Bo…tlle” explores the differences between Early African and European folk magic practices and the creolization of practices that came about from the sharing of culture between the two cultures. I have also bee able to explore my interests in Visual Anthropology by volunteering to be a film pre-screener for the 2023 film festival put on by the Society for Visual Anthropology during the American Anthropological Associations annual meeting to be held in November 2023. I am also working on a research poster to be presented at the 23rd VCU Rao Ivatury Trauma Symposium which will explore the time to pain medication received during trauma broken down by race/ethnicity, gender, and age. This has been a problem throughout medicine as African Americans, women, and children historically are not medicated as well as males of European descent are.
I feel the classes offered at your institution as well as my background and research interests lend themselves to one another and would be mutually beneficial through publishing and presentations that would be possible during my time of study.