Kitty Truell

A research scholarship and learning around hauora Māori helped to prepare Kitty for her current policy advice role at the Ministry of Health.

I chose Health Promotion as a major subject because mental health is really important to me, from supporting friends and whānau to my own lived experience. Removing inequities in health outcomes and accounting for intersectionality are also key points of interest.

I really liked the collaborative environment in the Faculty of Health and building relationships with my peers, tutors and lecturers. I also appreciated that we were given the space to develop our own interests and projects to work on, so that I got to dig deeper into topics that interested me.

I found most of the courses contributed to my thinking, knowledge and interest. Specifically, the hauora Māori courses, and the hauora Māori focus in other courses. The Pacific health and wellbeing, and health policy courses were also particularly relevant and helpful.

I worked in part-time jobs during the university trimesters and full time during the summer periods.  I chose work in the government sector in the hopes of crossing over into health, including taking on temp roles through a recruitment agency. Then I was lucky to have my application accepted for a short research scholarship in Health Promotion, on innovative models of primary healthcare. My supervisor gave me a lot of support through this scholarship and one of my lecturers helped me prepare for the interview for my current role.

I am currently a policy advisor in the newly established Public Health Agency. This role allows me to have a policy focus on the determinants of health and equity, while also incorporating health promotion knowledge and perspectives.

My key piece of advice to current or future students would be to please pay attention in your statistics course, and also learn te reo Māori at university if you can! I wish I had had that advice. I did a Te Reo Māori course in my final year at university and loved it. I have been learning te reo Māori in my spare time, which is really awesome, but I would have loved to have picked it up earlier.