2014: Building cultural community locally and globally

202 NEW STUDENTS

78 STUDENTS FROM OVERSEAS In 2014, MSPGH and the broader Faculty supported the enrolment of Indigenous students who held senior positions in Indigenous Health in Shepparton and the surrounding Goulburn Valley.

Whilst students were enrolled in the MPH, the pathway allowed those without undergraduate degrees to apply. Fond memories are reported by the staff of this time and the program. There is a current Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Communities, run out of the Department of Rural Health in Shepparton. Several of rural PPUs commenced in 2014 and the MSPGH has worked with the Department of Rural Health to increase the opportunities for students to have rural experiences. The number of placements has risen steadily with students undertaking some excellent projects. PPUs have included working with the Aboriginal District Cooperative in rural Victoria and the Aboriginal Corporation in remote Western Australia. It is a testament to the students and hosting agencies that placements have been able to continue throughout the challenges of the 2020-2021 pandemic with an onsite and online blended approach with extremely positive feedback from the hosting agencies.

It was in late 2014 that Professor Rob Moodie took leave to take up a position in Malawi and the School welcomed Rosemary McKenzie as Director of Teaching and Learning (and as of 2021 the Deputy Head of School).

STUDENTS REPRESENTING 29 COUNTRIES

Lynette Phuong recalls “my parents’ refugee experience inspired me to pursue a Master of Public Health and aspire to helping empower communities globally and locally to progress in health and life. This has seen my public health career span working in health promotion and advocacy, and digital health across Australia, Mongolia and most recently with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Health Promotion, with the charismatic Professor Rob Moodie, was my first subject in the Master’s degree – it was fantastic! I appreciated the introduction to models of health and health promotion, as well as the fundamental elements of successful health promotion in Australia and overseas settings. Fast forward to my final semester in 2014, I’m ever grateful to have chosen the semester-long ‘Public Health in Practice’ subject led by Professor Helen Jordan alongside my final four elective subjects from the Nossal Institute (yes, it was an intense final semester!). This unit gave us an opportunity to solve current and active public health problems in an encouraging learning environment. Like the ‘Health Promotion’ subject in my first semester, we were lucky to be spoiled with an inspiring line up of guest speakers and classmates. One of our assigned group assessments required us to put together strategies for a Medicare Local to address the problem of poor oral health among children in their catchment area. One of my group members worked at the Barwon Medicare Local Region so it was almost a no-brainer to pick this region with a ‘champion’ in the group and, of course, pick Slammin’ Sam Tomcat (Geelong Football Club’s mascot) as our mascot with his big smile for our proposed roadshow throughout the region to raise awareness of the importance of oral health with children and their families. With my creative cap on, I stayed up the night before our final presentation to put together the ‘Keep Kids Smiling Resource Kit,’ which we had envisioned distributing to children during the roadshow through the region to help them develop and enjoy a healthy tooth brushing habit. I was ultraexcited when my supervisor at North Richmond Community Health asked to keep the kit and help look at ways of incorporating these resources into their Chompas and Pearly Whites’ programs”. Lynette Phuong, Australia

“As a medical student, I watched patients present at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital with both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Most times, these patients had no money to pay for medical bills and many of them were presenting late with advanced form of diseases. It was a helpless situation. I started thinking seriously about how to fix this problem. That was when I made the decision to practice the medical profession from the preventive side. On the other hand, I am a socially active person, so I did not think that sitting in a lonely cubicle in a hospital and seeing patients one at a time was going to be a rewarding career for me. I decided to specialize in public health so that I can learn how to prevent diseases at the population level. I was always drawn to the social, environmental, political and commercial determinants of health in my community. The MPH at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health helped me fulfill this career goal. More importantly, the MPH was aimed at developing and nurturing public health leaders who will fit into resource constrained settings. The learning experience was aimed at empowering students to think deeply to identify the root causes of health problems, provided them with tools to conceptualize simple and feasible solutions (ideas) for these problems and at the same time empowered them with the skills and boldness to catalyze the enablers that will make the solutions come to live and confront the contextual barriers that will prevent these solutions to materialize. In addition to learning, the MPH program understood the value of promoting diversity and freedom. Most lecturers understood that we were coming from diverse backgrounds and this had an impact on social circles, learning experience and extra-curricular activities. The MPHSA (now MPHSS) provided the opportunity to embrace diversity and culture. The high point of my time was serving as the President of the MPHSA from September 2013 to October 2014. I succeeded Lucinda Westermann and handed over to Laura Thomas. It was a rewarding leadership experience.” Dr Bridget Nwagbara, Nigeria