Genetic Counseling Personal Statement

My choice to pursue a career in genetic counseling came about in an unconventional way. I entered my freshman year of college believing that I would become a chemical engineer. This decision was originally based upon my interest in science, my fondness for problem solving, and the hope that I could help others. During my first semester as an undergraduate at the University of Delaware, I realized that my passion for this career was not present, and I felt as if I had made a mistake. I had no doubts about my academic abilities in this field, but did not feel the enthusiasm that I desired in a career path. Half way through the semester, I decided to change my major to Neuroscience, due to my love of psychology in high school and my ever growing
This allowed me to conduct an independent research project full time, which involved studying the functionality of glucocorticoid receptors in the hippocampus on a rat model of posttraumatic stress disorder. Summer Scholars was one of the most valuable experiences in my career as an undergraduate because I was forced to learn many procedures that I had not been exposed to in my first year in the lab. My confidence skyrocketed as I found myself one of the most knowledgeable members of the lab, when just a year before I was afraid to even touch a rat. As a senior, I am now the lab manager and on top of continuing my summer project, I help to keep other undergraduates engaged and facilitate learning in the lab. Additionally, I am one of five authors who presented at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in San Diego November 12-November 16, 2016 and currently have one publication pending. While this research was fulfilling and I felt that I was finally applying knowledge in a productive way, I could not picture myself pursuing a career as a professor full time. I knew that I was capable of working in a lab setting, but I did not have the experience of directly helping the public in a way that I wanted to. Although my goal as a genetic counselor is at first to work with patients in a clinical setting, my extensive time spent in a laboratory will aid me in the future if I
I considered becoming a counselor, a physical therapist, or a physician’s assistant. When I stumbled upon genetic counseling, everything finally seemed to click in my head. This profession that I was researching combined two things that I loved: the psychology and counseling aspect of my major, as well as the science side of my major. While speaking with a coworker, I was able to get contact information from a genetic counselor at the Helen F Graham Center and Research Institute (HFGCCRI) at Christiana Care and A.I. Dupont Children’s Hospital. This opened the door for me to complete a total of 60 hours of shadowing experience, and developed into a 4-hour per week internship at HFGCCRI my fall semester, which I hope to continue throughout my senior