Essays by James Nejat, a student at Cornell University

The following are excerpts from essays by James Nejat, a student at Cornell University, in which he traces his unexpected journey from an uncertain business major to a purpose-driven path shaped by service, global health, and hands-on problem solving. In these passages, James reflects on how a month-long volunteer trip to Guatemala with the San Lucas Mission transformed his understanding of career, leadership, and impact—revealing how something as simple as building safer homes can profoundly change lives and inspire a new vision for his own future.

Personal Statement

Going into college, I did not know what type of career I wanted for myself. In high school I did not have a particular favorite subject I wanted to pursue, so I applied as a business major because of its reputation for job placement. Through my freshman year business classes, however, something felt off. Despite earning excellent grades, I felt lost, going through the motions without a sense of purpose or direction. That changed when my cousin, who had just finished his MPH and was preparing to enter medical school, invited me on a month-long trip to Guatemala to volunteer with the San Lucas Mission. I could not overstate the profound impact that experience had on my future career and on how I view life.

In Guatemala, my cousin and I helped lead construction projects for families living in extreme poverty. While the work itself was physically demanding, the experience challenged me in far more meaningful ways by forcing me to listen, adapt, and lead within a community very different from my own.

Helping lead the mission required more than coordinating tasks or managing supplies. Each day brought new challenges, with limited resources and language barriers, this experience demanded constant problem-solving and collaboration with local community members. One moment that stood out was when our group needed to move large rocks without heavy machinery, something taken for granted on construction sites back home, but simply unavailable in rural Guatemala. We created an assembly line to methodically move large rocks up a hill, showing how problem solving was a vital skill for each new task given to us in construction at the mission. 

Spending time with Guatemalan families illuminated how profoundly issues like unsafe housing and inadequate infrastructure affect health, safety, and overall quality of life. Something as fundamental as a stable roof or a clean, secure living space can significantly reduce health risks and improve a family's trajectory for generations. Infectious disease outbreaks were not uncommon in many of these close-knit rural communities, and members of the mission consistently emphasized the critical role that proper housing plays in combating their spread. They noted that in communities where access to basic resources such as sanitary cooking equipment and proper sanitation facilities had been introduced, rates of infectious disease declined substantially: a direct and measurable consequence of structural improvement.

That month in Guatemala made me realize the importance of and my passion for public health. I returned to campus knowing not just what I wanted to study, but why it mattered. Public health sits at the intersection of everything I experienced in Guatemala: prevention, access, equity, and addressing the root causes of suffering rather than simply treating its symptoms. It is a field that demands both analytical thinking and genuine human connection, and which I am very interested in.

Since returning, I have taken steps to align my academic path with this new sense of purpose. I have switched my major at the University at Buffalo to Public Health. Yet I find myself eager for a new environment with even broader resources, stronger research infrastructure, and a deeper community of students and faculty working at the forefront of public health. Transferring to a new institution represents more than a change of school: it is an opportunity to pursue a path that reflects both the clarity I found in Guatemala and the goals I am still working toward. I am ready to bring the adaptability, purpose, and sense of service I developed in Guatemala into the next chapter of my education.

Artwork: Fishermen on Lake Atitlan by Pascual Apq

Cornell Essay 1: What community do you belong to?

My last name, Nejat, translates from Farsi as rescuer or savior, a word that has never felt merely nominal in my family. My grandfather, father, and many of my uncles devoted their lives to medicine, each one embodying a quiet but unwavering commitment to the well-being of others. 

The most recent member of my family to walk this path is my cousin Cameron, who pursued computational biology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell before earning his MPH there as well. Before beginning medical school, he extended an invitation that would prove transformative: a construction trip to rural Guatemala alongside Cornell students and alumni. It was through this experience that I encountered a community that would leave a lasting mark on me, the Cornell Big Red community.

On our first day in Guatemala, we worked at a construction site building a home entirely by hand due to the lack of construction equipment. We shoveled dirt and gravel for hours in the high altitude and sun. Seeing the effort that the Cornell volunteers invested in this community changed my perspective. They had chosen to spend their time working alongside local residents rather than enjoying their winter break, and their commitment demonstrated how deeply they believed in giving back.

I was also fortunate to meet Bruce Clemmens, a mentor to my cousin and the founder of Agua del Pueblo, an organization dedicated to providing potable water and sanitation infrastructure throughout Guatemala. Bruce, alongside fellow Cornell alumnus Dr. Paul Wise, had traveled to Guatemala immediately after graduation. Bruce worked to overhaul failing sanitation systems, and Dr. Wise established a health promoter program that continues to sustain the community of San Lucas Tolimán to this day. Encountering this legacy of purposeful service felt like a bridge back to everything my family name stands for, and it is precisely why I aspire to become part of the Cornell community.

Cornell Essay 2: Why do you want to do a global development major essay?

I am drawn to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University because the Global Development major would allow me to engage deeply with a diverse global community. My experience in Guatemala this past winter helped me realize how important it is to truly understand the communities you hope to support. Cornell’s approach to Global Development by focusing on listening before action, aligns closely with the way I hope to study and address global challenges in my career. 

Global development offers me the opportunity to complete an 8 week field based internship and study abroad. This experience will deepen my understanding of the root causes of global health challenges, the social factors that shape them, and the strategies available to address them. An example that I would be interested in is the Maternal Health and Child Nutrition placement with GapNet in Ghana. Working alongside medical practitioners at local hospitals, I would gain hands-on exposure to interventions targeting child and maternal mortality building both the practical skills and contextual knowledge needed to contribute meaningfully to global health work.

Global development also offers me the ability to take classes like GDEV 2105: Preparing for Ethical Engagement, emphasizes how to work with communities before entering the field. After my experience in Guatemala, I have realized that meaningful development work begins with listening and understanding local perspectives, and Cornell's focus on ethical, community based engagement reflects that approach. CALS offers me the opportunity to learn from professors such as Chris Barrett, whose research on food security and community based development is similar to the challenges the people of Guatemala were going through when I was there and would love to learn from him to help address global challenges.

Cornell's "any person, any study" ethos extends well beyond CALS, giving me access to a breadth of disciplines that will strengthen my development as a future public health professional. The Brooks School of Public Policy, for instance, would allow me to examine the structural forces that shape health outcomes and translate research into actionable change. I would also pursue Spanish language and culture courses through the College of Arts and Sciences, building not only linguistic proficiency, but a deeper cultural literacy that would allow me to engage more meaningfully with the communities I hope to serve. 

Ultimately, CALS represents the environment where I hope to grow: not only as a student, but as a thoughtful and committed public health professional.

Essay No. 3

I have already begun contributing to my community by serving others beyond my immediate environment, and these experiences have shaped how I understand leadership and responsibility. This past winter break, I spent time in Guatemala working with the San Lucas Mission, where my cousin and I helped lead construction projects for families living in extreme poverty. While the work itself was physically demanding, the experience challenged me in more meaningful ways by forcing me to listen, adapt, and lead in a community very different from my own. Each day brought new challenges, from limited resources to language barriers, that required constant problem-solving and collaboration with local community members. An example of this is when my group had to find a way to move big rocks without machines because most houses that are built in Guatemala don't have the same machines they have in the usa and that problem solving helped me learn to adapt in different situations with limited resources.  I learned quickly that effective leadership is not about giving instructions, but about understanding people’s needs and working alongside them. Spending time with Guatemalan families showed me how deeply issues like unsafe housing and lack of basic infrastructure affect health, safety, and overall quality of life. One of the most impactful lessons I took from this experience was how closely living conditions are connected to long-term health outcomes. Something as basic as a stable roof or clean, safe living space can significantly reduce health risks and improve a family’s future. This realization reinforced my interest in public health, where the focus is on prevention, access, and addressing the underlying systems that shape health before people ever need medical care. Guatemala helped me see public health not as an abstract field, but as something tangible and urgent.

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