Previous Institution
Technical Institute Nicola Pellati - High school Diploma
Tell us about your educational and/or career journey since you graduated from Brunel.
I started working for Khalsa Aid International almost straight after my graduation. I did not know what to expect from this organisation and it wasn't very clear what I would do as an Aid Coordinator. However, after a month in the office, they sent me to work in the field in Zambia for 2 weeks to assess our water system in schools and to create new projects within the country. After this mission, I started travelling every month to different places around the world. During the year, I participated in emergency relief projects and development projects and I learned different skills such as field assessment and research, supplier search, engagement, and management, budget management, management of junior staff and volunteers, monitoring and evaluation of emergency and development projects through data collection analysis.
What does a typical day at work involve for you?
In a typical day of work in the field during a deployment, I spend a lot of time in the car travelling from one place to another where people are in most need of our support and depending on the different projects during an emergency we assist people with a distribution of essential items, if it's a development project we mostly spend time to monitor the work in progress of the project. During my typical day in the office, I write reports and project proposals, collecting data from different stakeholders, and facilitate meetings between different partners and the management team.
What’s been the highlight of your career journey so far?
Run a food security project in Malawi where we delivered seeds and fertiliser to farmers. Monitoring and evaluating the progress of the crops, understanding how to improve the project and helping communities in need during disasters such as, in this case, Cyclone Freddy.
How would you say your Brunel experience has helped you to get where you are today?
Studying Global Challenges Planetary Health at Brunel helped a lot because it gave me the right skills to overcome complex difficulties during my work and it established the necessary confidence to be creative/critical/passionate, and see societal problems from different angles. Global Challenges at Brunel allowed me to run projects during my study, in collaboration with real organisations. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to apply my studies to these projects using the tools given during the lectures. The course allowed me to be creative and pushed me to find innovative solutions for every challenge I experienced so far.
Why did you choose to study at Brunel and why would you recommend Brunel to others?
I decided to study at Brunel because of the Global Challenges course. I wanted to study something that combined science with geopolitics in order to understand the world that we live in today.
What is your best memory of studying here?
I have a lot of good memories but the best one is when I discussed my planetary health project proposal in front of the lectures from different departments. It was incredible to put together all the knowledge learned during my studies and be able to express it to an external audience.
If you could give one piece of advice to current Brunel students, what would that be?
Be yourself, open up to others, and listen to others' opinions and ideas.
What would be your top tip or key advice for new graduates as they begin their career journey after leaving Brunel?
You should never stop being curious. You should never stop looking for your real passion.
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