Student Series: Karunya Subramaniyan — Rural medicine is something everyone should experience

An international student who was born in India and grew up in
Kuwait, Karunya Subramaniyan was well into an engineering degree
in Singapore when she saw a poster that changed her life. She
calls it her “eureka” moment. The advertisement was calling on
engineers to consider postgraduate study in medicine, a career
path Karunya had always thought was beyond her reach.


With extended family in NSW, she applied to, and was accepted by,
the University of Sydney. After hearing glowing reports from her
peers, and with fond memories of her father’s rural village in
southern India, Karunya chose to undertake a rural placement in
Dubbo, and it lived up to her high expectations. Here, she says,
she was integrated into the hospital team much faster than would
have happened in a bigger city, that she felt instant
camaraderie, and has experienced “heaps” of teaching and clinical
experience.


Her advice to any other young student — particularly
international students — is to “just go for it,” because rural
placement is something everyone should experience.


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