Khine Soe Lin

Many people said I am lucky to win PhD scholarship at Sydney University. Yes, I am.

There were big supporters behind this achievement. One of them is Jenny. When I studied at Melbourne University in 2015-2016, I attended two of Jenny’s subjects: 1) Communication for Research Scientists and   2) Science Communication.

Among uncountable things I learnt from these courses, the most significant insight is transforming Science into Art by using effective communication methods. If we keep Science itself, it is just Science. If we combine Science and successful communication, it becomes attractive Art. It can draw people’s interest and lead to implication of these science knowledge in their daily life.

Powerful communication is a tool for success in a scientist’s career. In my case, I won the first runner-up award of poster presentation at World AIDS Congress 2015 and First prize in Three minutes thesis competition of Melbourne University 2016. It cannot be denied that these are results of my practices in Jenny’s classes. We practiced, made mistakes, corrected and improved through two semester’s journey. We enjoyed presentations, seminars, contests, group work, video films, exhibitions, role plays, talks, panel discussions, journal writing, internship, radio broadcasting and simulation exercises. Without these experiences, I would not get prizes and PhD scholarship as an international student who came from a non-English speaking background.

In short, yes, I am lucky to secure my PhD scholarship. Luckier than that is having a chance to attend Jenny’s classes for a year before that application.