Huma Shehzad
After being pulled towards two potential career paths, Huma was delighted to find she could pursue both at the University of Auckland.
“In high school I was tossing up between being a Doctor or a Lawyer. I always felt that either of those professions would mentally challenge me, but also align well with my people-skills where I love to connect with individuals from a wide range of backgrounds.
As a BHSc/LLB conjoint student, I think I’ve struck a great balance between the two worlds.
“At the end of school, I decided to pursue a clinical pathway either through Medicine or Pharmacy. I chose the Bachelor of Health Sciences (BHSc) because my strengths lay in essay-based subjects. I really liked that entry to clinical pathways had the flexibility of choosing between Health Sciences and Biomedical Science, so students could choose accordingly. As someone who didn’t excel at Physics, the BHSc was the perfect choice for me, offering health psychology and population health papers alongside the compulsory clinical prerequisites.
“At the end of first year, I recognised that a clinical degree wasn’t for me! I had to reflect on what things I enjoyed during my first year of Health Sciences, and this helped steer the direction I was headed in. Without fail the population health papers from first year really struck my interests, and I realised I was incredibly passionate about the intersection of existing social, political and legal forces in perpetuating health outcomes. I then decided that this interest could really be supplemented with a Law degree. That helped make the final decision very easy.”