Please explain why you wish to do graduate work in the field you have selected with particular emphasis on your proposed area of specialization. (Applicants should limit their essay to no more than one typewritten page.)
I am a cancer researcher and author of books related to cancer. Since I was 13-years old my goal was to be a cancer researcher. The reason why I wanted to do cancer research did not have anything to do with someone I knew that had suffered from the disease, but was born out of pure scientific curiosity about a disease that was not understood back in 1966. When I was 10-years old I discovered what cells were and soon thereafter realized that there was this mysterious deadly disease that affected them. That’s where my interest in cancer really started and everything in my life since then has had to with the disease. I took this vision through high school and through my years at Villanova University. After graduation, I got my first cancer research position as a laboratory technician at the prestigious Wistar Institute on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in a mouse cancer immunology lab. I went on to work for the University of Pennsylvania Medical School running a lab that examined the cellular (T cell) immune response to a type of human skin cancer called melanoma for 15 years. I received my PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in Immunology and shortly thereafter, scientists at the NIH developed a new type of cancer therapy called, “Cancer Immunotherapy” using information based on my PhD thesis.
I did cancer research for 30 years and during that time I got to meet and know over 500 cancer patients and their families. There were three reasons for this: first, I cared about them and second, I wasn’t a physician and third, I knew a lot about all types of cancer. Initially, my interactions with cancer patients were as a translator. Much of the information they received from their physician was technical and difficult to understand. After a patient would give me permission and contact their doctor, I would often speak with the attending physician and then go back to the patient and/or family to translate what I was told into plain English. Usually, once the physician understood I was a cancer scientist, they would often give me information they deemed too difficult for the patient to comprehend, which when translated, would add to the information the patient/family had already received. Later, as my experiences with these patients increased, I noticed them having emotional difficulties dealing with the personal and social aspects of having cancer. These difficulties often centered on their perceived helplessness and the reaction of family and friends to their new situation as cancer a patient. It didn’t take long for me to figure out how to help them through these difficulties. Because I had been exposed to so many of these emotional difficulties from the years of experience with patients and their families, it became easy for me to help them think about these negative psychological aspects of cancer in a positive manner.
These were the people I wanted to help with my laboratory research, so when I decided to leave the lab and write books about cancer that act was a continuation of that same desire to help. My first book was published in February 2011 and is about immunity to cancer, but it was written with cancer patients in mind because much of the book highlights this new painless form of cancer treatment mentioned above. The book represents my transition for immunologist to psychologist because it not only has to do with immunity to cancer, but also patient-based clinical trials that are altruistic in nature. Just like when I was trained in biology to understand the complex relationship between the immune system and cancer, I now have the desire to be formally trained in clinical psychology in order to fully understand the complex relationship between illness and the human psyche. By achieving this goal I will be able to continue my efforts to help cancer patients deal with a disease that not only affects the body, but also the mind.
Please describe your academic honors, publications, recent achievements or activities (including membership in professional organizations) reflecting interest in the graduate area desired.
Because of the way that my career has been structured up to this point in my life, I haven’t had a chance or time to pursue joining professional organizations or being involved with activities related to psycho-oncology. However, what I can say is that I always excelled in the social sciences such as course work and related writing projects. I viewed my keen interest in sociology, psychology, and anthropology as a mental retreat from my continual training as a biomedical scientist. Over the past several years, I have written and submitted several scholarly journal articles about the social aspects of cancer, which were all rejected. I surmised that part of the reason why they were rejected was because of my research scientist background as opposed to the background of a bona fide social scientist. Another reason why would be the result of that very situation, which would be my inability to present the information in a proper social science format. I intend to continue my efforts to publish a non-biomedical research manuscript in the future.
The reason I enrolled in the Masters of Liberal Arts program at Widener University was to bridge that gap between the analytical sciences and social sciences. To that end, my Capstone Project (Master’s Thesis) is about how cancer has changed society. It is in three parts, which are: The Individual and Cancer, Families and Cancer, and a Cancer knowledge Survey. The information presented in the thesis should demonstrate how cancer has changed society into one that includes cancer and the people affected by it as a part of society. This is in contrast to the 1970s, where cancer was considered a “taboo” subject and was viewed as a hidden sub cultural disease that affected only a few people. I plan to include the first section (The Individual and Cancer) in my application packet because it not only reveals my thinking process, but also clearly demonstrated how this disease has changed our society.
Biography
I was born in Southeastern PA. (Delaware County) and wanted to do cancer research from the age of 13. After graduating from Villanova University as a Science Major, I became a Research Technician in a mouse cancer immunology laboratory at the Wistar Institute on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Three years later I became a Research Associate in a human cancer immunology lab under an Oncologist (Dr. DuPont Guerry) who specialized in malignant melanoma at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) Cancer Center. I was in charge of the lab for 15 years and in the 1980s our laboratory was the first in the country to demonstrate a cellular (T cell) immune response to melanoma in the skin as well as in the laboratory. I received my PhD in human cancer immunology and information from my PhD thesis was used to develop a new type of cancer therapy called, “Cancer Immunotherapy.” After leaving HUP I continued to do cancer and AIDS-related research for a total of 30 years. I published 15 scientific articles and presented my research at national cancer meetings for 12 of those 15 years at HUP (Google: Michael Alexander and T cells and melanoma).
Also during that time I met and got to know over 500 cancer patients and their families. Because of my employment at various hospitals (HUP, Thomas Jefferson, and Lankenau) my labs would often be in close proximity to cancer wards. Because I had detailed knowledge about various forms of cancer and could communicate with patients on a non-physician style basis, I had the opportunity to intimately interact with numerous cancer patients and their families. Many of these patients were not only from those hospitals, but were either family members, family members of friends or friends of mine. These patients supported me in a way that was hard to describe. Most of the cancer research I did was highly theoretical and very difficult. Getting my PhD was also difficult, but in both cases these patients encouraged me to do a good job. They would encourage me to do this not for them, but for people yet to be diagnosed with the disease. The concern these patients demonstrated for others they didn’t even know is what has kept me determined to do what I can to help them.
When the Iraq war started and funds were diverted from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund the war effort, grant funding became difficult to obtain. I could not get funding for the highly theoretical immune-based research I did. There were other lucrative positions (pharmaceutical companies) available to me, but I chose not to take them because I’d have to move away from my family. Also these positions would only support me financially, but not really help cancer patients. Therefore, I decided to give-up my life-style and do something that would not only help cancer patients, but also their friends and families. I could not help these patients by working for a company to just make money. At this point money was not the issue. There were several years of homelessness, which gave me time to separate myself from 30 years of laboratory research. During that period, I decided to change careers and become an author that writes books about cancer. In 2009, I enrolled in Widener University’s Master of Liberal Arts program to improve my writing skills. I will graduate in the spring of 2012. The primary concern with me was to help people understand not only what was happening to them when they were diagnosed with cancer, but also to help non-cancer patients understand what their loved ones were going through when this happened.
My first book was published in February 2011 and called, “Immune-based Cancer Treatment. The T Lymphocyte Response.” It is about the cellular immune response to various forms of cancer and was written for college/med school students and readers of magazines such as Scientific American. It was also intended it to be read by cancer patients because new cancer immunotherapy treatments were highlighted in the book. The next book, which is being evaluated by a literary agency is called “Terminal Cancer” and is about my life as a cancer researcher. It has 70 short stories about cancer patients I had met during those 30 years. The stories are dispersed throughout each of the chapters, which represent different periods of my life. The stories are not exactly factual because there are legal issues involved with revealing identities of actual patients. These stories are instead, an amalgamation of patient encounters that I’ve had over the years. They convey the experiences and feelings of being a cancer patient seen through the eyes of a cancer researcher that gets involved in their world. The hope is that when people read this book they will see the life of a person who is going through a unique experience and in many, but not all cases, had terminal cancer. If the readers are survivors of the disease, the book will probably make them remember some of the non-medical people who helped them through the experience. If they never had cancer or knew someone who did, they should now understand that the experience of having cancer is not always about sadness and despair, but about hope and becoming stronger because of it.
At this point, I have four other books (3 narrative fiction and 1 non-fiction) in various stages of completion. These books will hopefully expose the reader to aspects of cancer that they were unaware of and show how this disease is just as much a part of life as being born and dying. In the past, cancer was not spoken of out of fear and ignorance. To a certain extent that silence about cancer still exist, but on a different level that has to do with what the cancer patient is going through. Many people without cancer simply do not want to know, but they should want to know because it can happen to them. As a result of this “silence” people with this disease suffer needlessly. It is my goal, through the publication of these books and other future activities, is to change that silence and bring the salient details of this disease out into the open. To that end, I have decided to organize what I would like to be an annual event, which would be called, a “Cancer Awareness Fair.” This would be a social event for everyone because cancer does affect everyone in one-way or another. However, the focus will be on cancer patients, survivors, and families. Just like an old fashion “Country fair” there will be food, entertainment (multimedia presentations about cancer and cancer prevention), information (cancer-related literature), cancer physicians and nurses on hand for questions, and a kids play area. It will be an opportunity for the people associated with cancer to meet in a social atmosphere that encourages communication. As for my current aspirations, I’ve decided to use my personal experiences with cancer patients and my knowledge of cancer in combination with a PhD in Clinical Psychology to have a positive impact on the lives of cancer patients and their families.
Please explain why you think the Widener University program will serve your training needs.
I already have an introduction to psycho-oncology through my experiences with cancer patients and the research associated with my writings during this transition from life-sciences scientist to social scientist. However, what I lack is the detailed basic understanding of health-related psychology. I can only gain this knowledge by being formally trained as a clinical psychologist. The fortunate part of all of this is that one of the most highly rated clinical psychology programs in the country is here at Widener University. I truly expect to be academically challenged by this program and because psychology has always been a favorite subject of mine, I also imagine that it should be a lot of fun as well. Those who know me know that I thrive on difficult task and challenges. I am driven by the desire to understand previously unknown concepts by constructing and testing theoretical models that may reveal an underlying truth or fact, which may allow the discovery of a provable concept or statement of fact. This is part of the reason why I became a scientist who did theoretical experimental cancer research to the exclusion of all else. The challenge of doing what no one has ever done before bin the lab, was one that was difficult to walk away from. I still have this deep desire to help cancer patients and intend on approaching that task in the same way. I bring that same drive to just about everything I do. This program is structure in such a way as to allow me to learn about peripheral aspects of psychology that have to do with every-day existence. Even though it may seem as though some of these psychological aspects have nothing to do with health-related psychological problems, they actually do because they (such as fear of intimacy) are drawn upon in the development many health-related psychological problems faced by cancer patients. However, without a detailed understanding of these peripheral aspects of psychology, I would be unable to be effective as a clinical psychologist and be couldn’t to help these patients in a constructive manner. Therefore, this program will not only serve my training needs, but will also allow me to continue my efforts to help cancer deal with the psychological aspects of their disease.
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