Personal Statement Workshop

The Role of Your Fellowship in Your Statement

Your personal statement should not be about your Aequitas fellowship. It should be about who you are as a future physician — and your fellowship experience is one of the most powerful pieces of evidence you have.

The best personal statements use a specific moment to reveal a larger truth about the applicant. Your fellow project almost certainly gave you that moment: a patient who changed how you think, a community partner who challenged your assumptions, a project that failed and taught you something.

Structure That Works

Open with a moment. Not a thesis statement. Not your childhood. A specific, vivid scene from your clinical or project work. The reader should be in the room with you.

Expand to meaning. What did that moment teach you about medicine, about patients, about yourself? This is where your fellowship experience provides depth — you didn't just observe a disparity, you built something to address it.

Connect to the specialty. Why does this experience make you want to practice [specialty]? The connection should feel earned, not forced.

Close with forward motion. What kind of physician will you be? Not aspirational fluff — a concrete vision grounded in what you've already done.

Example Opening Lines

From a free clinic project: "Mrs. Garcia didn't need me to explain her diabetes. She needed me to understand why the bus to the pharmacy took two hours."

From a community health literacy course: "The first time I taught a health class where the students taught me more than I taught them, I realized everything I'd assumed about patient education was wrong."

From a vision screening project: "The six-year-old couldn't read the eye chart — not because she couldn't see, but because no one had ever tested her."

Each of these puts the reader in a specific place with a specific person. They raise a question the reader wants answered. That's what a strong opening does.

What to Avoid

Don't write a mission statement. "I am passionate about serving underserved communities" tells the reader nothing they can't guess from your CV. Show the work, don't declare the passion.

Don't make the fellowship the centerpiece. The fellowship is evidence. The centerpiece is your growth as a physician. A program director should finish your statement thinking "I want this person in our program" — not "this person really likes their honor society."

Don't use jargon. "Addressing the social determinants of health through community-based participatory research" reads like a grant application. Write like a human talking to another human.

Don't apologize or hedge. "I hope to one day make a difference" is weaker than "I've already started." Your fellow project gives you the right to be direct.

Revision Checklist

Before submitting, ask yourself:

Does my opening put the reader in a specific moment? If it starts with "I have always been passionate about..." — rewrite it.

Can someone picture a real patient, a real community, or a real project? If everything is abstract — add a scene.

Does my fellowship experience appear as evidence, not as the topic? If you mention "Aequitas Health" more than twice — refocus.

Would a program director in any specialty find this compelling? If it only works for one political perspective — broaden the framing.

Is it under one page? ERAS personal statements should be 650–750 words. Every sentence earns its place or gets cut.