Bachelor of Biomedical Science/Bachelor of Global Studies Conjoint personal statement example

Personal statement example

Every few weeks my grandmother brings a pharmacy bag to the kitchen table and waits for me to read the leaflet with her. Her English is good for church and shopping, but phrases like "take with food, avoid grapefruit" or "may cause drowsiness" need explaining in Tongan, and I have found that some ideas do not translate neatly. There is no everyday Tongan word I know for "blood pressure" that carries the same meaning, so I end up describing what the tablet is doing in her body. Doing this has made me curious about two things at once: how medicines work, and why the same information can be easy to act on for one family and confusing for another. That pairing is why I want to study biomedical science alongside global studies.

At school I take Biology, Chemistry, Geography and Statistics. My favourite piece of work this year was a Biology internal investigating how temperature affects catalase activity in potato tissue. I measured the oxygen produced by collecting it over water, and my first set of results was uneven because the potato discs were different thicknesses. Once I cut them with a cork borer and trimmed them to the same length, the curve became much clearer, with activity rising and then falling sharply at higher temperatures. Statistics helped me describe the spread in my repeats rather than just reporting an average, and I enjoyed being able to explain why the enzyme stopped working in terms of its shape rather than just saying it was "too hot".

My reading outside class has pulled me towards the human side of science. Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks showed me how cells taken from a Black woman in 1951, without her knowledge, became one of the most widely used cell lines in research, while her family knew nothing for years. I had always thought of a cell line as just a lab tool, and the book made me think about consent and who benefits from research. David Quammen's Spillover, about diseases that pass from animals to humans, connected with my Geography topic on development, because it describes how changes in land use and travel shape where outbreaks begin. Global studies appeals to me because I want to understand these patterns properly, not just notice them.

On Sundays I work at a café, mostly on the till and dishwasher. It is not science, but it has taught me to stay calm when twelve orders arrive at once and to talk to customers I would not usually meet. I have also learned the food safety basics, like why the dishwasher's rinse temperature matters, which made me smile when I later studied enzymes.

I play club volleyball as a setter. The role suits me because it is about reading the court and making quick decisions for other people, and I have helped coach our under-15 girls' team on Thursday evenings this season. Explaining footwork to a nervous thirteen-year-old is a lot like explaining a pill leaflet to my grandmother: I have to break it down and check they have really understood.

I know biomedical science will be demanding, especially the chemistry, and I expect to work hard at it. I am interested in physiology and pharmacology, and I would like to learn how research findings reach communities, including Pacific families like mine, where language and trust affect how health advice is received. Studying both degrees together would let me build the scientific foundation and the wider understanding I need to keep asking those questions well.