Health Science Reviews

By Zeeka Sellidon 

I am currently halfway through my honours’ degree, and I can clearly say that it was nothing short of a rollercoaster. At the beginning of the year, I was filled with so much anxiety right before enrolling and had so many unanswered questions that only experience would allow me to answer. I knew the only way I could find out was to dive headfirst into the academic year.

So far, we have completed the general techniques course, stream-specific techniques as well as modules which all counted as course work, and I have genuinely learnt so much from the first half of honours. The course work was not a walk in the park. I found myself constantly having to sit and re-read slides to try to make sense of them but with enough revising and reaching out to lecturers, I was able to see this issue through and make the most of my academics. Not only did I learn essential scientific concepts from the course work that will help me in the future, but I too learned the importance of resilience and a great support system in difficult times. 

I was incredibly lucky to have an amazing honours class in the Infectious Diseases and Immunology stream. Despite all of us being slightly scared and unsure about most things, we still made sure that no one was left behind and all hyped each other (especially through those back-to-back medical bacteriology presentations). 

I am looking forward to the what the remainder of the year has to offer, and I can’t wait to get into my research project a bit more. If there was one piece of advice I would give my past self, it would be to talk to as many people as possible, whether it be fellow honours students, lecturers or even professors. Personally, I have been and still am dealing with a lot of uncertainty regarding my future career plans and feel as though, talking to different people could help give you perspective as well as potential career options to follow.