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Framingham State

University
English Language
Program
Bridge - Transition 11
Title: The most
influential
Person in My Life
Name: Joseph Boland

There are few people in the course of our lives that mark for us the
path that we want to walk.
The person that I admire the most is one of my mentors, he helped me
not only in getting a really important position but also he gave me the
opportunity to work for him.
He put me on charge of the health of and entire community. At this
point I'd like to give you some background. Im from Guatemala, a developing
country in Central America. We have with very bad working conditions and
barely any supplies to work with. Nevertheless, I did create a communitybased program that united the healthcare center, the city hall authorities and
the local magistrate's court.
The program consisted in sexual education for teens, weekly meetings
with the rural midwives focusing in hygienic methods of childbirth and close
supervision of the local slaughterhouses. This was because we had too much

teen pregnancies, high index of stillbirths and high levels of food transmitted
disease.
With his guidance and support I was able to get approval from the local
Ministry of Health to implement these programs.

He also taught me among other things how to work with people and
influenced my decision making to become an experienced and successful
leader in rural communities.
Today his advice is still useful and the experience I gained by working
for him has proven to be valuable in achieving my goals not only
professionally but also as a person. True friends are not easily found and to
have a friend and a guide is even harder.
I had always believed that in my country people would never share
knowledge or their experience as advice to a young and recently graduated
professional. He proved me wrong.

He had achieved success and never

hesitated to share his experiences and secrets to me on how to approach


people.

He taught me who was the people I needed close to me and how to

keep a relationship with them.

This has been helpful especially when Ive

been in the situation of being an outsider trying to make my way in a new


country. He taught me where and how to bring up a specific topic to have the
effect one is looking for.
He was the person who trusted in me and for this I strongly believe
that this was my starting point as a health professional.

By giving me the important job of director of the health district of


Santa Rosa de Lima in Guatemala I was in charge of 84 sq. miles of territory
and also of a population 17,260 (census of 2010).
The area is a rural community that had limited resources and barely
spoke Spanish; this was a real challenge for me professionally.

This job was

the beginning of my experience as a community leader and health provider;


this made me a better physician
He did not only influence my attitude and behavior in the professional
field, but also as a person.
He insisted on the fact that every man was not totally complete until
he became a part of his own family.

This has helped me to endure the

differences and to try and work things out even when they seem to be a no
solution problem. I have learned many things along the way but using his
teaching has given me the tools to be successful.
Finally, I would like to say that my mentor passed on a valuable lesson
to me for which I am grateful.
His advice has really helped me in the way a make decisions.

And

because of that I am not afraid anymore to dream for the impossible and to
walk towards these dreams, confident that I can achieve them.
I treasure his words and have used them in all my life changing
decisions.

The most valuable thing of all, though, is that when I least

expected to have someone to guide me, he appeared. I hope one day I can

become a person like my friend and my mentor and I also hope to change
someones life or at least to have a good advice for him or her.

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