A young woman from Nigeria, I have been raised to think in terms of social responsibility and solidarity and to cherish the goal of helping the desperately poor people of my country and the rest of my struggling continent, Africa. I focused early on food, diet, and the importance of adequate nutrition to one’s health. Thus, I earned my BS in Food Science (2012) and my master's degree in Food and Nutritional Science (2015). My central passion and long-term goal are to do everything that I can to improve the health of the popular classes of Nigerian peoples through adequate nutrition and public health education about nutrition. For this reason, being accepted to study towards the PHD in Public Health with a focus on Nutrition at XXXX University would be the crowning honor of my life so far and prepare me for making my maximum contribution to my society. XXXX University is my first choice for graduate study in Public Health and Human Nutrition because of your emphasis on thinking and acting globally and the interest in and solidarity shown with Africa by the University of XXXX.
Earning the PHD at a world renowned Public Health program like yours at XXXX University will prepare me for a lifetime of struggle in Nigeria and perhaps elsewhere in Africa as well, designing and implementing food safety and distribution programs that will enable us, within time, to win the battle against hunger that will go a long way towards curing and especially preventing disease. I look forward to learning everything that I can about sanitation as well as nutrition at XXXX University to help us to be better able to prevent and control disease, especially by combating malnutrition in children and the elderly. These two groups are particularly vulnerable with respect to public health nutrition issues. I look forward to a lifetime of service to orphanages and internally displaced persons in camps like the ones that we have in the Northern part of Nigeria because of widespread violence resulting primarily from the actions of the terrorist group Boko Haram which is causing widespread devastation and suffering in Nigeria.
I particularly look forward to designing and coordinating workshops for mothers in rural areas concerning how to afford nutritious food to prevent their children from being malnourished and partner with rural health centers to provided education programs focused on successful approaches to the prevention of chronic health outcomes for the elderly. I look forward to many decades to come of educating young and old alike concerning the power of nutrition to prevent chronic disease in the long term, especially cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Doing everything that I can to promote healthy eating habits, I intend to partner with industries to facilitate and promote the production of healthier food products with macro-nutrients and vitamins.
I look forward to paying special attention throughout my career to women and girls because when you empower a girl you empower a nation. I want to have a share in encouraging girls in Africa to pursue science, technology, and engineering – with respect to food production as well as a host of other areas. My long-term goal is to build my own consulting firm dedicated to the promotion of public health nutrition, working with a broad range of actors from private companies and NGOs to government agencies and international human rights organizations. My ideal job/position would be a chief executive officer of my consulting firm, and a principal officer with a non-profit international organization dedicated to the promotion of nutrition in Africa, especially Nigeria.
When I was twelve, my mother started an orphanage. I grew up watching each of these kids develop in their own ways while I helped to care for them. Many had nutritional and developmental issues having lost their mothers at a very tender age. I was involved with managing and supporting the home for several years. This went a long way towards my incredibly early moral development and cultivation of my great passion for helping the undernourished, in every sense of the word since the children that came to us were undernourished emotionally and communally as well as physically.
I have a solid academic foundation that will serve me well as a PHD student in Public Health and Human Nutrition at XXXX University since I engaged in a great deal of research in my studies, particularly as a master's student. During my first degree I focused on product development and exhibition sessions, my passion to fight hunger among children inspired me to develop a weaning formula for infants using peanuts, soy, and corn. The product was also further developed as a family breakfast meal. This project helped to develop my research, communication, teamwork, and time management skills since I was able to share equipment and workspace with my colleagues and discuss the project with staff and other students.
As a research project for my bachelor's degree, I studied the chemical, functional and pasting properties of flours and starch from African Ron Palm shoot. For my Masters, among other projects, I learned everything that I could and wrote about Epicatechin rich chocolate and its effects on vascular function, working with the Jeremy Spencer Research Group helping me to grow enormously in my understanding of the proper way to undertake and execute scientific inquiry concerning food and nutrition. I learned about the ILAB600 Chemistry Analyzer, High Performance Liquid chromatography, Omron MX2 automatic digital upper-left arm blood pressure monitors, Centrifuge, pre-processing and storage of Urine and blood samples and technical knowledge in the use of the Brachial Analyzer and Medical Imaging Applications.
During my one-year compulsory national youth service in Nigeria, I joined an HIV and Aids group and organized workshops and rallies in secondary schools. For one school, I also helped with the reconstruction of dilapidated classroom steps, drainage for access to the school, and a signpost for the incinerator as well as raising money to cover the cost of materials and repairs. This amazingly caught the attention of national radio and television stations, and I received a Letter of Recommendation from the National Youth Corps.
I was a founding member of our local chapter of the Nigerian Association of Food Science and Technology students at my university. In my bid to encourage girls’ involvement in science, technology, and engineering, I worked with other pioneer executives and was the only female in the leadership. I represented my level as a senator, then became regional coordinator representing eight tertiary institutions, and finally the Vice President on a national level. I also had the privilege of organizing speakers and students for the food and nutritional science department annual conference and acted in the capacity of a student ambassador for the school on open days. Since my graduation, I have been an active member of the National Institute of Food Science Technology.
Thank you for considering my application to XXXX University.
PHD Public Health Nutrition Personal Purpose