✨ Creativity lives in everyone. I always thought I wasn’t “artistic.” But between drawing check-ins, emblem-making, and model prototyping, I saw my creativity come to life in new ways.
The entire experience was a beautiful blend of structure, spontaneity, and shared learning.

✨ Entering a discussion with curiosity and empathy changes its outcome. One of the tools we learnt helped us test this, and it really
✨ Diversity isn't just a buzzword. The richness of our group came from the wide range of lived experiences. Every perspective brought something valuable.

Some highlights I’ll carry with me for a long time:
✨ Spaces shape ideas. The collaborative environment (literally) reminded me how intentionally designed spaces can fuel openness and teamwork.
University of Cape Town

Over five days, our teams worked through a structured design process, from identifying real-world challenges to immersing ourselves in communities, ideating, prototyping, and ultimately presenting our solutions to stakeholders.

Modern life may help us sleep longer, but protecting your body clock is key to sleeping healthier!

#sleepscience #circadianrhythms #sleeptips #sleepbetter #modernlife #phdecoded #publichealth

That disruption can raise risks of obesity, depression, cardiovascular disease, and even certain cancers.

3 sleep-friendly habits you can start now:
✨ Get bright, natural light in the morning
📵 Cut screens before bed
🌡️ Keep your room cool & consistent

But… before you ditch the “modern life ruins sleep” narrative, here’s the twist:
Our circadian rhythm, which is our natural body clock, is way more disrupted in modern settings thanks to:
Artificial light from screens + street lamps
Less daylight exposure
Melatonin suppression

Now, a new study of over 500,000 participants shows that the environment (aka nurture), might play a 10x bigger role than your genes 🤯

This can be what you eat, where you live, and how you exercise, and it once again shows the importance of life saving health policies!

As a lecturer who helps students unpack privilege, bias, and decoloniality, watching them connect the dots beyond the textbook is one of the best parts of my job.

#PublicHealth #STEM #science #research #highereducation

Women, healthcare, heart disease, heart attack, endometriosis, public health, science, research, STEM #phdecoded #internationalwomensday #womenempowerment #inclusivity

But the solution is simple. Always, always cook your chicken well! Here's to staying informed 😎

#publichealthmatters #phdecoded #kitchenhygiene

That curiosity led me to Public Health. It's where science meets people, behaviour, and policy. And I absolutely love it. It challenges me, my core beliefs and thought processes, but I can't imagine a world without it.

#publichealth #stem #science #biomedicalscience #careerchange

Why were people hesitant to trust science? Why were health measures met with resistance? Why did things seem so obvious to me, and everyone around me, but not to the majority of the world?

I spent years studying biomedical sciences, immersed in the "what" and "how" of disease. It was exciting, thought-provoking. But during the pandemic, I realised I had more questions about the "why".

pt 2 👇