Profile: Raymond Chua Swee Boon
Raymond Chua Swee Boon from Singapore studied the MSc Public Health
"Time really flies! This one year in LSHTM has been very fruitful and stimulating indeed! 'Fruitful' in the sense that I learnt a lot from the comprehensive public health curriculum, from the basic 'core' disciplines of epidemiology, statistics, social research, health economics, health promotion and health policy to the many choices during the study units, covering a wide range of exciting and interesting topics (such as globalisation, conflict and health, ethics) - things that clinicians like myself were barely taught in medical school! The tutors were very helpful, approachable and eager to share their practical experiences and research work with the students, giving us vast knowledge on the subject topics taught! And of course, the opportunity to interact and share our public health experiences with students from countries all over the world with diverse backgrounds had proven to be an invaluable learning experience as well! 'Stimulating' because the lectures, seminars and group-work were very discussive and innovative, such as the new Blackboard where virtual discussion forums could be set up between students and tutors.
In addition, I was given the precious opportunity to be the Students' Sports Representative, practising what I had learnt in health promotion - to make LSHTM an even 'healthier' school through organising many sports events (such as yoga, body-combat, touch rugby, charity jog, tennis, hiking etc) for staff and students to participate and keep fit! I was glad to pick up lots of leadership and team-working skills whilst doing this role.
Finally, with all the public health knowledge and skills I gained and the networking I had acquired from this course, just as Confucius said "The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it", I would aspire to use them to become a much better and efficient public health practitioner working towards my vision to make a positive difference to the overall health for the population in my country and worldwide."
