Anthropology Personal Statement Essay

My interest in anthropology was spurred during my undergraduate education. Prior to my college education, I had no idea what anthropology was. Growing up as a Mexican-American in a large border city, there is an innate awareness of a subtle separation between one’s self and family and friends who live across the border. While high school courses, media and general discourse may create a narrative that explain away inequalities, it was my sociology courses throughout my undergraduate and graduate degree programs that gave me the ability to think critically about the inequalities that surround us. I began my college education as a political science major, hoping to pursue a path in law because I wanted to help people. However, after taking courses in anthropology and sociology, I realized there was a way that I could still help people while enjoying and being passionate about my work.
In the midst of my undergraduate …show more content…
Angela Frederick as an undergraduate research assistant in Sociology and Anthropology department at the University of Texas at El Paso. As her research assistant, I helped her compile literature for literature reviews for journal articles that she intended to publish. I also assisted with the IRB application process, and was responsible for checking the formatting, grammar, and spelling in said articles.
My junior year as an undergraduate student, I received a fellowship with the Get Covered America program. During my time there, I was responsible for conducting phone surveys with individuals from the El Paso area, asking them about their insurance coverage and their experiences with the Insurance Market Place, as well as conducting workshops on how to apply for insurance through the Insurance Market Place. I was also responsible for hand coding the data and entering it into the appropriate database, where it would be analyzed by the project