Bio

Age: 20, from Bristol, UK

Imperial Course: iBSc Global Health

Optional Modules: Imperial Award

Previous Education: MBChB at University of Bristol

Clubs and Societies: Sikh Soc

Tags: Home, UG, MED, iBSc, Sikh

Motivations and Frustrations

Motivations

Meena always wanted to study medicine and her mother, and her older brother are also doctors. She has come to Imperial in her 3rd year to intercalate and to experience living away from home for the first time. Since she is only at Imperial for one year, she wants to make the most of her time here. Volunteering is part of her life from growing up in the Sikh community and she is enjoying experiencing the differences in London. Her goal is to complete her medical degree and specialise in public health.  

Frustrations

Meena’s main frustration is that she wants to be involved in as much as possible while she is intercalating but she has realised that she can’t do everything so is having to turn down opportunities.  She feels like she could be missing out on finding areas of study she could be really interested in. While she is enjoying London, and the independence that comes with being away from home she misses the time she would normally spend with her family. 

Meena's Imperial Award

Meena always wanted to study medicine, her father is a lawyer and her mother and her older brother are doctors so there was a lot of pressure to study and get accepted into a good university. Meena is studying at MBChB at University of Bristol and has come to Imperial in her 3rd year to intercalate and to experience living away from home for the first time. She is very aware of the competition involved in studying and practicing medicine and sees IA as an additional qualification on her degree transcript.

She has chosen the following attributes to write about in his portfolio

  • Problem Solving
  • Creativity and Innovation
  • Effective Communications
  • Social Conscience

and she would like to reflect on the following experiences

  • She has spent much of her life around the local Sikh temple volunteering.
  • She would like to reflect on her Indian/Sikh heritage and the cultures and traditions that have been part of her life.
  • She is a member of the Sikh society which has helped her settle in at Imperial which she finds very different from Bristol.
  • As part of her course, she is particularly interested in lifestyle medicine and how this area of medicine could be developed to support Global and Public health more broadly