MSc IHTM through students' eyes part 1
Students Samantha Fien-Helfman (USA), Grace Mzumara (Malawi), Naima Nasir (Nigeria), Farah Jawitz (South Africa), Elisha Ngetich (Kenya), Mesulame Namedre (Fiji), Nicole Feune de Colombi (Argentina), Luzia Tomas Freitas (Timor L’Este), Lilian Ibe (Nigeria) and Zoned Bentounsi (Morocco) describe what's like to be on the MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine
The highlight of the course for me has been the people. It's incredibly diverse, this year there’s 26 people from 21/22 different countries, and it’s not just a Master’s programme, it's a family, and getting to spend time together knowing that these relationships are going to last long after the programme.
My highlight was the UK parliament experience because it was the first time for me as a researcher to actually work on a paper, and get parliamentarians who make policies to be interested in my work, and it was the first time for me to really understand how my work can have an impact on international health.
My research placement experience was on the Thai-Myanmar border and personally for me, I come from a country where there are regions that do experience and are still experiencing conflict. And for me the most interesting thing was to be able to go to another situation, learn about the health issues that can happen in a conflict zone on the border and share that experience and really take away lessons on how you can use limited resources, to provide care to really the people who need it the most. And that's the most rewarding thing about the research placement for me.
It was a wonderful time to be able to apply the knowledge that I learned throughout the course, all the way from what it meant to be in a global stakeholder meeting to apply research skills, and so generally an incredible end to a very fulfilling year.
I’m moving on into PHD after this so I’m really excited about that, because I will now delve deeper into research, and my research project will be based back in Kenya so I hope that will give me more experience on how to change the healthcare system in Kenya.
I’m planning to go back into public health, my interest is in obviously HIV and Tuberculosis but also public health and also looking at health systems strengthening.
So, I thought I wanted to do infectious diseases and then the whole Master’s changed my mind, so I’m going to continue exploring new alternative ways, I’m interested in international development and research, so I think that's the best part of the course how it changes our minds through it.
For me it’s home away from home.
Three words, stressful, it's transformative, and also it’s very rewarding.
It’s been insightful, it’s been demanding, quite demanding but most of all it’s been very rewarding.
Just be genuine with your applications, the course want to know you and what you can offer to the cohort.
Apply now, it’s an amazing course.