London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Hi, I’m Rishika - I'm in medical school at the University of North Carolina and I studied MSc Reproductive & Sexual Health Research programme at LSHTM between my third and fourth years of medical school as an intercalating student.

What motivated you to study MSc Reproductive & Sexual Health Research at LSHTM?

I had worked in global health throughout my undergraduate studies - I did an international health fellowship in Nicaragua and worked at the WHO for a summer, so I felt loosely connected to global health and knew that maternal health was also a rising interest for me. I was a birth Doula in my home state and I saw how helpful research was in moving forward grassroots initiatives to help improve the birth journey for a lot of pregnant people. Through that, and other related research experiences, I realised that I didn't have the self-sufficiency or independence to lead a research project on my own. For that reason I was really attracted to the MSc in Reproductive & Sexual Health Research because it seemed so tailored to my exact interests and would give me a strong foundation to start a career as a physician researcher in my future.

I had heard amazing things in the global health research space and the global health arena in general about the work LSHTM were doing. It sounded like a much stronger global health experience than what I could have in the United States. And given the changing political nature of the US, and the changing political climate around the world, I thought it'd be helpful to step out of an American system and really approach things from an outside perspective.

I think LSHTM is also doing great work in decolonising their curriculum and understanding the ways that research and global health have some dark roots and unpacking all of that. So, it just seemed to combine a lot of my interests in this one-year course. It also seemed like an excellent life experience to be able to live in London and interact with people from many different places.

How did you find the intercalating experience?

I thought it was a really lovely experience. It was nice to be grounded in clinical medicine, but then return back to public health which I feel like I had a lot of professional experience in and coursework focused on throughout my undergraduate studies. But in medical school, you're time constrained and so it was nice to have a full year to just dive back into those public health-based readings and those discussions.

There was definitely a large medical presence on our MSc Reproductive & Sexual Research programme, but I was really interested in all the other backgrounds that came to the course too; from people who were in medicine but have left to pursue other fields, people who had just graduated, and people who worked for NGOs etc. I think there was a good diverse presence of thought throughout the programme cohort. Everyone is realising that research is a tool that we can use to move the needle and have more forward discussions in a lot of ways. I think it's especially nice to see more of that diversity growing in the Reproductive & Sexual Health Research course because research isn't just for medicine.

How would you say studying a public health master’s in the UK differs from studying in the US?

With the curriculum, it seems like in both the US and the UK, I could tailor the curriculum to what I wanted. I just really appreciated having a much bigger presence from countries and perspectives that weren't just the UK or the US or Europe when studying at LSHTM. I enjoyed having speakers from diverse backgrounds and having that varied perspective. At LSHTM, we benefited from having the researchers both on the ground and then actually speaking about their research in class, so that was a huge plus having relevant and research-informed teaching.

Another thing I appreciate about the programme was whereas in the States, we're asking ‘What state are you from?’, ‘What town are you from?’ At LSHTM, you start at country and go from there! For me, it was important to have that global focus. I feel like in the US, we really are focused on domestic research for the most part, and this is reflected in a lot of our public health master’s, so it was really nice to move out of that.

Having gained that global perspective, do you still feel that will be helpful for you to have that knowledge now going back to and working in the US and to work in your desired field?

Yes, I really do. I think in some ways a lot of the lessons learned involved thinking about the research questions we explore applied to time and resource constrained settings, which exist across the world. For instance, I spent a lot of time in medical school at clinics and hospitals in rural North Carolina. When we focus on resource constrained settings and questions like climate change and how to build climate resilience in healthcare facilities and amongst healthcare workers, those lessons can be relevant and practically useful to think about in a variety of settings. Additionally, simply having the tools to independently conduct research and conduct good research will be useful. It's about applying the same lessons to settings that I'll work in in the future, wherever that may be.

What modules did you choose?

I picked topics that were not directly related to maternal and child health, and that may be partially because of my background. As I'm pursuing obstetrics and gynaecology, I felt like I had already had some clinical and public health knowledge on certain topics relating to that field, so I was really trying to go after either a perspective that I hadn't had, or a skill set I didn’t possess. I chose Analysing Surveys & Populations Data following the advice of my programme director because I knew I wanted a quantitative summer project and knew that would be necessary. I'm so glad I took Medical Anthropology & Public Health too - I had minored in it in my undergraduate days so I knew that it provides really valuable perspectives. I also took Conflict in Health - I'd read the feedback from prior students, and it was just glowing! Having studied this module now too, I can confirm it totally met my expectations and matched what the feedback had said from prior years; it was an excellent course. I had never learned about health economics so I took a health economics module and then Health Care Evaluation too. I tried really to do things that I knew I would never really have the opportunity to learn again and I'm really happy with my decisions.

I wanted to mention how I really appreciated the Programme Director, Melissa Palmer, for being a really helpful source of support. Both Melissa and my personal tutor Laura Oakley, were so helpful and kind and really helped guide me in my module decision making as well as providing professional and personal support.

What was your favourite memory from your year of studies with us?

There are so many - it was a wonderful year! One of my favourite core memories from the year was on the last day of classes at LSHTM. It feels like we're really scattered with all of our different modules at that stage of the semester, but it was a beautifully sunny day, and everyone gathered around the front of the building and took pictures. Just getting to interact with everyone and say ‘we did this!’, and having that sense of community was a really lovely memory, and I feel like the sun came out in so many ways in my life on that day. The summer boat party that our class organised was also such a blast! Such a fun way to celebrate after classes had ended and reunite.

You took the opportunity of studying in London to explore further afield during your studies too, tell us more about what you got up to.

I feel like I really took advantage of the cheap and frequent flights available from London. I went on a backpacking trip in Northern Albania with one of my best friends and I explored with some of my coursemates as well. I really enjoy hiking, so I feel like I got to do a lot of that and soak up the sun elsewhere when London wasn't offering it to me, and I also did a hiking trip around Fort William in Scotland too.

I ran a half Marathon in Runmarö (an island in the Swedish Archipelago) in the summer which was such a cool race to run. I also got to run the Cambridge Half Marathon with other LSHTM students fundraising for the scholarship fund - it was a great experience and a very fun race.

You were a Rotary Foundation scholarship recipient – tell us more about this funding route.

There are Rotary Clubs all over, but I think there's a strong Rotary presence in London, especially coming from the States. They provide an excellent opportunity to focus on specific areas, many of which include public health, and I think they have one specifically devoted to maternal and child health. I was reading about the scholarship, and it just perfectly described what I aimed to do: it matched my goals and aims and funded graduate studies abroad. I feel really lucky it covered tuition fees and a significant amount of my living costs. I don't know that I would have been able to do this programme without the funding, so I'm really, really grateful to the Rotary Foundation for making this all possible and to friends who pointed me towards it.

It's astonishing how expensive master's programmes are here in the States. The international rates in the UK are still half the price of some of the universities in the States for tuition. It's a huge financial burden to pursue a degree, so the more people know about different scholarship routes the better, I think.

What have you been up to since you completed your studies?

I have been interviewing for my placements for my residency following medical school and loosely still working on my dissertation. In January I returned to the States to finish out some final rotations through medical school to finish out those graduation requirements too.

Come July, I'll be working in hospitals for around 80 hours a week, so I'm trying to take advantage of having time outside of work and studies. I was able to go back home to India and see a lot of family and catch up with friends and do a 2 week backpacking trip through the Himalayas. I soon find out where I'm placed for the next four years as I'm doing obstetrics & gynaecology for my placement in the States, so we'll see where that takes me.

What advice would you give to prospective students?

My advice: be curious. It felt like such a privilege to be able to step back into that curiosity and use the modules to figure out what I wanted to do at the end of the year for my project and how it would shape my future career as a physician. The speakers we had from our modules were phenomenal. I felt so inspired by some of the people I got to interact by being able to be curious and pursue this course at LSHTM.

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