Student blogs

Hello and happy belated new year to you all! This is an interview blog to introduce you all to Ruby, a current Global Masters’ programme at KI. She shares us her experiences at KI and Sweden from based on her own background growing up in the U.S. In light of application season, I hope her story provides inspiration for some of our prospective students!

Meet Ruby!

Hi there, please tell me a little bit about your background!  

“I did my undergrad at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. My major was Interdisciplinary Health Sciences and Pre-medicine. Most of my work experience is either in a clinical setting for example, working as a hospital laboratory assistant or working in a hospital in their patient care department. But I find an interest in public health and the more direct clinical one-on-one setting. And so I wanted to explore that here at KI.” 

What draws you to public health? What is your favorite part about public health?  

“I was trying to make a decision between whether or not I prefer to work in healthcare. So, working one-on-one as a patient-provider kind of relationship, or if I prefer to work with interventions that can help hundreds and thousands, or even more people and make a greater impact on health, but maybe focus on less personal one-on-one type of healthcare. I wanted to explore working with large-scale interventions and i also really like the global aspect of the programme. Another factor that drew me to this field was my passion for shining a light on health disparities. That’s something that I realized that, as a doctor, I may not be able to make a huge difference on. But in public health, you can really address disparities in health within races, gender, and/or socioeconomics, and that’s something that I’m really passionate about.” 

Studying at KI

Why did you choose to study at KI?

“I was introduced to the programme by one of my mentors. After further research, I found KI to be a prestigious research institution with the possibility to network and forge new connections. Because of that I thought it would be a great place to jumpstart my career in public health and learn more about the field. It was the perfect opportunity to interact with the field at a place that is renowned for its work in public health.  I also think that Sweden’s really cool!”

What has been a highlight with your programme and KI in general?

“I never thought I’d say this in a million years but probably learning how to work with Biostatistics. I never learned that in my undergrad, and I was a bit terrified of it.  So becoming more comfortable with the subject and knowing that I am capable of doing it is something that I really enjoyed. But other than that I really enjoy the people in my programme. Getting to see so many different points of view especially on things that I may have otherwise had more rigid opinions on, has also been very valuable. But I guess the absolute highlight of studying here has been my thesis so far. It’s been really interesting exploring my topic! Specifically, understanding the factors that are impacting access to harm reduction services and sexual health services for high-risk individuals in Myanmar.”

Life at KI and Sweden

Are you involved in any student organizations?

“Through the 2023 calendar year, I was the public health student representative for Medicinska Föreningen (Medical Student Union). I would attend monthly meetings and advocate for students in the Public Health section. It hasn’t been without challenges though. Enacting change has been slow, and because the meeting agenda documents would be in Swedish. But apart from translating all the documents it’s been fine since the meetings were held in English.”

What has been a challenge for you here? 

“Getting used to a different teaching style and finding my thesis was tough. I know that really challenged me because I’ve never done it before. And I also really thought that I would find the lack of stress from the courseload to be very relaxing. But because I’m so used to such an intense school system, I struggled with motivation for a bit when it came to classes at KI where I had so much time to do everything. So I had to learn how to manage myself for a bit and not rely on the stress of deadlines to motivate me.”

What is your favorite Swedish word?

“Korv” (Swedish word for hotdog)

What lies ahead?

What would you tell yourself one year ago?

“I would have told myself to apply for both programmes. Other than that, I would tell myself to get out of your apartment more, hang out with people, and make friends with people in your class. Invest in the friendships that you have in class as much as you can. You’re only going to be around them  for some of them for so long, but you never know when you’re going to run into them again in the future. We’re all going into the same field so having these connections is something that you’re going to want to cherish in the long-run. I think it’s important both for the memories and for professional reasons.”

What is your dream profession?

“Maybe a plastic surgeon to interact with interesting clients, but I may lean more towards an orthopedics surgeon. It would also be cool to help design orthopedic devices that could improve the quality of lives of many individuals. That way I could contribute to the health field for a long time, even past retirement.”

Thank you Ruby for sharing with us your experience, and for opening up about some vulnerable as well as personal insights. Please be on the lookout for more interviews this year!