Indigenous Health Scholarship Program

Medicine has been a strong interest of mine since before starting university, however, I was not confident that I was smart enough to study medicine. I have had first-hand experience in hospitals due to my own injuries as well as being present when family members were in hospital with chronic illnesses. The sheer amount of knowledge that doctors had was fascinating to me – though the short falls were easy to see especially with patient communication and conveying empathy towards vulnerable and disadvantaged people. I studied an Arts undergraduate degree straight out of high school, majoring in International Studies and Sociology. I successfully completed the alternate pathway into medicine with Flinders, with encouragement from family, concurrently in the last semester of my undergraduate degree.

Choosing to study medicine was not a decision I made at a young age nor was it made during my high school years. In high school, I rarely entertained the idea of pursuing an education at a university level. During this time, I believed becoming a psychiatrist was an unrealistic aspiration. My parents didn’t complete their high school education and a life-threatening stroke forced my mother into early retirement. I found it difficult to imagine tertiary education as part of my narrative, believing I would take after my parents. Despite these obstacles, I have had the opportunity to study medicine, the first in my family? and if I were to be awarded this scholarship this would assist myself and my family in numerous ways.

My dreams since being a young girl has been to care for people. It took years to get there but I am finally studying. My goal is to work at APY lands or in country with those vulnerable people who are scared of the modern hospitals. I would love to help them feel safe and to make sure they are receiving the best care possible.

I have always been passionate about Indigenous Health and had aspirations of pursuing a career as a doctor with a focus on Indigenous health and community outreach. Although this is not my current degree, I still have dreams of using laboratory medicine as a pathway perhaps into post graduated medicine. Laboratory Medicine, so far, has shown to be very rewarding and an interesting degree that holds many career opportunities and I am excited to explore both the pathology and public health sides of the degree.

I have chosen to study dentistry as I have a great interest n oral health care. I have always really enjoyed going to the dentist since I was young, and have been fortunate enough to benefit from visiting the dentist regularly. I have also chosen to study dentistry as one day I would really like to be able to give people the gift of smiling. Many people struggle with their self-esteem from the appearance of their teeth; therefore, I would like to boost peoples self-esteem to enjoy smiling by becoming an orthodontist after completing my current degree in dentistry. I also hope to be able to encourage will people to visiting the dentist nby increasing oral health knowledge and raining awareness of available pathways to dental care for Aboriginal people.