麻豆视频

Shubh Athwal came into the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) Bachelor of Science program with a mapped out plan: with her set interests in health and knowledge mobilization, she would confidently pursue a traditional, textbook science-based graduate program after completing her undergraduate degree. That plan changed dramatically not only due to discovering a love for epidemiology and an increased curiosity in why disease spread, but from the loss of a family member in the beginning of her undergraduate career. 

"Amidst exploring a love for epidemiology, I was also navigating the loss of my grandfather, Baba Ji, Zorawar Singh Athwal, to whom I was very close. I felt lost and torn between keeping up with my responsibilities at school and giving myself the space I needed to grieve. What ultimately carried me through this period were the everyday lessons Baba Ji had instilled in me as a young child,鈥� she explains. 鈥淗e would always tell me, 鈥榮low and steady wins the race.鈥� During one of the darkest periods of my life, I came to understand that moving forward did not mean forcing myself to push through my grief. It meant allowing myself to grieve, taking things one day at a time, and trusting that progress did not have to be fast to be meaningful.鈥�

As an FHS graduand, Athwal found tremendous value in establishing connections with her peers and professors out of her sincere curiosity to understand more about people. This led her to an opportunity to lean further into her passion for knowledge mobilization via her podcast, , where she connects with academic scholars to speak about their expertise.

鈥淚 saw so much personal growth in my confidence by giving myself permission to pursue what genuinely interested me, rather than trying to force myself toward what I thought I 鈥榮hould鈥� like,鈥� she explains. 鈥淚 learned that some of the most meaningful opportunities came when I followed my curiosity, and built genuine relationships.鈥�.

In her classes, Athwal saw her interests click into place as she became more familiar with the upstream model of care. She began to see her community and the health experiences of the people within it in a completely different light, and it shifted her perspective away from viewing health outcomes primarily through individual behaviours, but instead toward asking what contexts beyond an individual鈥檚 control are shaping their experiences. This is where she began to think about her future completing an FHS Master of Science degree, and asking: what does equity look like within these contexts, and how can we address the conditions that shape health in the first place?

鈥淚鈥檓 currently in the program and working towards an MSc because I wanted to understand why health experiences differ between people and different stages of life,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 knew a research-intensive program was where I needed to be when I realized I could not simply accept what I was learning; I needed to understand why.鈥�

As a current FHS MSc student, she hopes to contribute to the field of social epidemiology through research focused on the health and development of children, as well as continuing to bring communities into conversation with health research by helping to bridge the gap between the research being produced and the knowledge that reaches the public. She also hopes that for those looking to do an undergraduate degree to heed her advice in following one鈥檚 curiosity.

鈥淭here is so much power in taking the time to genuinely ask yourself what you care about, and what you want to explore. I would encourage every student to remain open-minded, not only to what they are learning, but to the ways their own minds, and aspirations continue to grow and change. Follow your curiosity rather than what you are told you should pursue. There is limitless potential when you allow yourself to be fully present on a path that you genuinely care about. 鈥�