2016: Trailblazing remote study, travel and Global Health Competitions

174 NEW STUDENTS

43 STUDENTS FROM OVERSEAS

STUDENTS REPRESENTING 13 COUNTRIES One of the recurring themes about the MPH is the flexibility and friendships formed. The program is very much one of recognising and accommodating individual needs where possible. Whilst we have all experienced the need to be flexible through the years of the pandemic, Gareth Durrant was already trailblazing a remote global education approach in 2016!

Repeated themes from past students have been about the long-lasting friendships and strong connections made throughout the MPH. Tan Nguyen took this a step further with a group of MPH friends going on holiday to play football.

The Emory Global Health Case Competition is an international competition where each year six postgraduate students from the MelbourneGlobal HealthCase Competition are selected to represent the University the following year to compete against teams around the world in a pre-set case study. A shout out for the teams in 2016, 2019 and 2020 who received third, first and second places respectively. An amazing achievement!

• In 2016, the competing team won third place – with MPH student Mashaal Chaudhri and Dr

Jenn Lacy-Nichols, then PhD student in Agricultural Sciences and now with MSPGH. • In 2019, the competing team won first place – with 1 of the 6 students, David Morgan, from the intercalated MD/MPH program. • In 2020 the presenting team won secondplace with Hannah Morgan, MPH student and

Hayden Burch, Olivia Baenziger and Travis Lines all doing the intercalated MD/MPH. And congratulations to Mariam Hachem, an MPH student for being part of the 2021 team examining the challenges of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

“With backgrounds ranging from political science, medicine, public health and research, the six of us came together to work on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy. The experience taught me the importance of listening, critical thinking and working with individuals from different domain specialisations. This is the only University experience that I’d had in my entire tertiary education history where I have had this chance. I strongly encourage anyone who is thinking of applying for the Emory competition to just go for it!” Mariam Hachem, Melbourne 2021 team member

“For me, my MPH is not a static past event that I reflect on and remember. It is an ongoing network of collaborators who I have seen grow professionally and personally over the years. We still seem to collide and share work and contract opportunities, weigh in on new projects or celebrate milestones. I think I was somewhat of a trailblazer in terms of doing my biostatistics, epidemiology, evaluation and capstone units while overseas. What was the point of studying Global Health if you couldn’t do that while also pursuing work opportunities overseas? I’m grateful I was supported in those endeavours by faculty and staff. Throughout my MPH and shortly after I worked primarily in large International Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the health and human rights space in Asia-Pacific but left in 2018 to join a smaller consultancy co-op. Since my MPH I’ve been building a body of work using emergent strategy and facilitation, equity-based design and systems thinking to envision a more radical future in global public health. That includes improving random control trials for healthcare interventions in Thailand by designing with folks who have participated in them, reimagining what it means to age in China, designing age-friendly cities and communities with 79-year-olds in the Philippines. The SDGs that most resonate with my experience are 3, 5, 9 and 16.” Gareth Durrant, Taiwan

“I enjoyed everything about the MPH. It gave me a renewed focus on advancing dental public health. I particularly enjoyed the company of three friends with a shared passion for football and our memorable trip to Langkawi, Malaysia. My current research interests aligned with the SDGs are improving population oral health and reducing oral health inequities. My future focus will be to contribute towards the integration of oral health as part of universal healthcare in Australia.” Tan Nguyen, Australia

VOLUNTEERING WITH HEPATITIS VICTORIA

Volunteering has always been a big part of the MPH community. The picture depicts alumni, MPH students and Professor Rosemary McKenzie at the 25 Year Anniversary celebrations of Hepatitis Victoria.

From 2011 to 2016 more than a dozen MPH students volunteered in the health promotion and Hepatitis B prevention campaigns conducted by Hepatitis Victoria, with the multilingual skills and cultural understanding of our international student volunteers making a real difference in reaching CALD communities. Several of these volunteers went on to gain employment with the NGO and all have gone on to significant roles in health promotion and prevention programs in Australia and in home countries.

The MSPGH continues to work with a number of Not For Profit organisations and government departments within the PPU program. For example this year with LiverWELL (formerly Hepatitis Victoria), Diabetes Victoria, Orygen, Australian Red Cross, Lifeblood, STREAT, the International Planned Parenthood Foundation, Victorian Healthcare Association, mental and public health services, breast screening and a number of primary care partnerships, for example in social prescribing evaluation.