Karen Joseph

Hey, I’m Karen Joseph, a 20 year old medical student at Bond University.

I’ve always had a passion for the sciences, but during school, wondered how exactly I would incorporate this into my future career. I've learnt that the desire to help other individuals, the constant yearning to learn more and dedication, is an inherent part of medical students’ personalities. So naturally, Medicine was the perfect fit and exciting challenge I was hoping for.

Having graduated from MLC School Sydney in 2011, starting a new degree in a different state was a big step, but the first of many that has revealed itself in the course. The past three years have included so many opportunities for me to get involved in Uni life both socially and academically. Most recently, my transition to working in a hospital has given me a taste of what I have to look forward to and has sparked enthusiasm towards my future career.

I hope to one day become a Paediatrician, working not only with neonates, children and adolescents in Australia but in less fortunate areas around the world, including underdeveloped regions in Africa and Asia. Having travelled much of the world including South America, Europe and Africa with family, I have always had a love for exploring and discovering new and less travelled areas of the world.

I was also inspired by my sister’s amazing GapMedics stories of emergency medicine techniques, especially in enduring circumstances, adopted by Doctors in Thailand. I am looking forward to my own trip in the future and am so excited to learn a new subset of skills in the upcoming year so I can make the biggest difference in the lives of others.

As my school’s House Captain in year 12, I was also active in raising money for the Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia foundation, funding the Addis Ababa Hospital, pioneered by Dr. Catherine Hamlin, a huge role model of mine. Her amazing work in providing safe emergency obstetric care to reduce many preventable maternal and newborn death was inspiring to say the least. Dr. Hamlin not only directly influenced her patients lives by improving their quality of life, but indirectly through her desire to teach other health care professionals, specifically midwives, in an attempt to rehabilitate communities as well.

With these amazing goals in mind, I am excited for the remaining years and experiences I am yet to have at Bond and beyond both within Australia and around the world.