It creates really interesting
conversations when you meet up with LSHTM people
because you’ll be like ‘Oh, I have this bite’ and they're like
‘Oh, where'd you get it?’
‘Let me think like’, and then you try to come up with-
and you're like, ‘Okay, let's talk about it.’
I have a favourite infectious disease.
Oh, they're all bad.
But like, if I had to choose something I was most interested in...
TB
For me, it’s also my favourite.
If you have no knowledge of this building
or any other kind of
health related field
people always find it weird when you say:
Yeah, my favourite disease is
human African Trypanosomiasis.
Yeah, I do like
Panosomes. They are very cool.
So we just go around kind of, trying to defend our own disease for some reason
at lunch, so yeah.
My background is in medicine
my first research job was clinical
trial coordinator of a tuberculosis trial
but the research bug bit me
and since then it, I mean, I'm not cured from it.
For infectious disease was something very monotonous for me
before coming to this master’s
but now I can say
I feel like James Bond.
It's good to be critical
and actually you're encouraged to criticise the people that are teaching you
which is really nice, and removes
some of that barrier of it feeling as though there's a separation
between teacher and student, like you say.
Especially because these people
they're not just our professors
they're people that are actually working in the field
And sometimes I will go to a lecture
and then that evening I'll see them on BBC News
talking about MPox or something like that.
So having those professors
with those experiences
they're really able to give some additional information
that you might not see in a textbook.
Somehow LSHTM attracts
very warm people I think, because within my programme
everyone's very nice and warm and willing to
help you out for really no reason. They don't have to.
It was an international cohort.
I have a very good friend from Latin America, Ecuador,
and some were from Iraq,
some were from South Korea and Nigeria.
I don't know how they could tell, but they really attract good people.
As I was looking at the career paths of some people
that I really admired, people that are at the top of the top
when it comes to public health, like they were managing the COVID pandemic
or other positions of health leadership
I noticed they all had one thing in common.
They all had a degree from this School.
And then once Dr. Tedros became the new head of the WHO
I was like, okay, this really is an important
School to know about.
All of you can see, in a way,
the future. That sounds so vague.
But you can look around at the people that are lecturing you
or just doing things that you want to do.
You can see the next thing.
And that to me is so, has made us all feel
so much more motivated.
They also connect you without
you even asking sometimes they're like, ‘Oh, you have an interest in TB?’
in, I don’t know, some random place
and they're like, ‘I actually know someone there’ and you're like, ‘Oh, perfect’.
Like, let me grab a coffee.
So they like, it's not you always having to reach out.
They reach out all the time too, which is really nice, yeah.
And advice for future students, what would you say?
I would say
Come here.
Say yes to
going to see the jar of moles at the Museum of Zoology.
Like I don't know, just random things
like say yes to go camping and things like that.
So if you want support
not just academically but personally
so go for this, Public Health for Development
and due to a small cohort, you can easily make so many friends.
Take modules that you might not be the best at
but you might have some interest in or would like to learn.
Because even if you don't get the best mark
you'll end up realising that you learn so much more.
And even though people may laugh
at parties and say, ‘What are you studying COVID?’
When you say what you study, but you know you're doing something
that feels important. That is important.
Make sure you're passionate about it.
I think it just makes a big difference.
Don't focus on all these people
that were doctors for 30 or 40 years
or the people that were already doing internships at the WHO
because at the end of the day, it's your journey
and if the school saw worth in you coming here
and you had a passion to come here
then you're exactly where you’re meant to be.