PERSONAL STATEMENT

This personal statement should be a narrative statement

describing how you have achieved your current goals. It
should not be a mere listing of facts. It should include
information about your education, practical experience,
special interests, and career plans. Describe any
significant factors that have influenced your educational
or professional development. Comment on the number of
years of practical experience already completed in the
field in which academic work will be done in the U.S.

Things evolve with time so did I. I came in this world more

than a couple of decades ago in a rural community of
southern Punjab. What I saw around me, was an air of
inequality. My parental forefathers were predecessors of a
Muslim renowned saint phylogeny CHISHTI which made
us superior on religious grounds We were living better life
as compared to other villagers who did not had access to
even fundamental needs of life. Economy of rural people
revolved around livestock and they had to work hard for
life. In that era, few questions started to bother my mind;
why a common villager did not have the same privileges
as we had. I wanted to share my comforts with other
villagers.
No one in my family could go beyond high school as
education was not among the priorities. At primary level, I
won merit scholarship from rural school. In pursuance of
better quality education, my father took me to Lahore
where I completed O and A level Cambridge Examinations
from a well reputed English medium school, unlike rural
youth which was put to work to share the burdens of life
with their family.
During O and A level days, I had class fellows from
privileged strata of the society. I chose not to enroll in
private coaching classes and yet managed to acquire
very good grades compared to my fellows who paid
heavy expenses for coaching classes. Achieving top
position in academics was never an issue for me but
resolving social imbalance was the main challenge in my
mind. I wanted to become a good man like Muhammad
Ali Jinah (founder of Pakistan) and at the same time, act
like a famous Punjabi film hero, Sultan Rahi who fights for
the poor against the rich and in a film of 3 hours solves
issues of deprived community and brings justice to them.
What I did not know was how to do it?
I enrolled for veterinary medicine program in the pioneer
veterinary institute of Pakistan, University of Veterinary
&Animal Sciences Lahore. I believed this choice will
provide me an opportunity to go back to countryside to
help the deprived rural community. Among more than 130
freshmen from sound academic backgrounds, I was the
top merited student. stood first in a batch of more than
130 students, all from sound academic backgrounds. I
was declared as the class representative to manage the
routine academic and co-curricular activities. In this
capacity, I acted as a bridge between students and
administration. With passage of time, as my intellectual
horizon widened and my understanding of issues
increased, grew broader and I started finding answers to
childhood questions. Many ideas kept on striking my mind
to improve livelihood of common people by establishing
small entrepreneur units and in response "one woman
one goat", "one village one dairy farm" and other such
ideas were generated. Now, I was waiting for the right
moment to turn these thoughts into reality. Meanwhile I
graduated with flying colors and secured gold medal from
the University.
Viewing my excellent academic background and
managerial skills I was offered to join the 24/7 veterinary
clinical extension services at the same University of my
grad school which I accepted. I visited more than 500
small scale farmers and got closer to them and their
problems. Moreover, I provided basic veterinary training
to a batch of 30 persons under the platform of WWF for
conservation of common leopard. Viewing my dedication,
work performance and subject strength I was selected as
Lecturer in Department of Clinical Medicine, where I got a
chance to build a direct relationship between community
and students. I was selected as university representative
to visit US under Pak-US civic engagement project. I
visited George Washington University and University of
Minnesota under this project. I was exposed to an entirely
new world. This visit answered several questions
bothering my mind since my early days. I experienced
society established on true moral and ethical values
where every human has a chance to excel and live his
own life, and the weaker ones are brought closer to
stronger ones. As in Minnesota many efforts were made
to bring the marginalized Somalian community into main
streamline. Moreover, I got the confidence and courage
that I can change peoples social standings, as I saw US
youth very much conscious about their community. There
I learnt new concepts like service learning. Earlier, I
thought for working community is a charity, now it
seems like a social obligation and now we were not only
working for community but also trying to work with and in
community.
To transform my plans into practical reality, I started
working with participatory youth development society
(PYDSP), a Pakistan based community NGO, working for
participation of youth for welfare of underprivileged
masses of community, and presented my idea of One
women One goat, which was accepted for working in
district Sheikhupura, in which 50 goats were distributed
among 50 women, to entice them for generating a
reasonable income to support themselves and their
dependents. Following this successful venture, I joined
hands with an Australian based NGO, Australian services
linkages programe (ASLP), and working for the benefits of
small scale rural farmers. I won a project entitled making
cows pregnant worth PKR 0.5 million from Ghazi
brothers. In this project 100 infertile cows owned by poor
farmers were selected and were made pregnant by
hormonal manipulations and ultrasonography, done by
professional veterinarians. In this project the
undergraduate students of veterinary sciences were
engaged so that they can built a close tie with the society
and learn applied veterinary techniques. This was a
perfect service learning model. In continuation of this we
have initiated a new project rural youth applied
education under which undergraduate veterinary
students visit primary schools in villages and make them
learn applied education and skills which could benefit
those in future. Currently, this project is going on in two
village schools of district kasur. I dreamt of making each
village of Pakistan as one dairy farm under project
entitled ONE VILLAGE ONE DAIRY FARM in which all
livestock holders of village will be cooperating and
marketing their products at a single platform. It would
serve as their own brand and establish a direct link with
the end consumer, thereby enhancing profit of producers
by avoiding middle man and also would promote the
health of consumer by getting pure products. I am greatly
inspired by US 4H youth program and I want to launch
same sort of initiatives in Pakistan to promote youth
leadership and making them a responsible citizens of
future.
I am about to complete my M.Phil in veterinary medicine
as final thesis has been submitted. My Research was on a
high producing cross bred dairy cattle anomaly named
Bovine Emphemral fever (BEF) which affected dairy
economy badly. Two publications have been submitted in
national and international journals and hopefully will be
published in coming months. I want to do Doctorate in
Dairy Science so could master applied topics and could
raise socioeconomic status of rural community.