Big Wide World

Returning to Santa Maria a little over a year after graduation, Kiera Collier (2016) is back to talk about her many adventures since leaving SMC.

With a medical internship, travel and one year of university study under her belt, Kiera has packed a lot into her time since finishing high school.

Currently a student at UWA, Kiera is about to commence her second year of study with her chosen degree being a Bachelor of Medical Science. She plans to go onto medical school post-graduation with the ultimate goal of becoming a doctor, specializing in either pediatrics or obstetrics.

Squeezing in as many trips and working holidays as she can during her breaks from university, Kiera has spent 5 weeks in Broome working for a pearling company and more recently a three-month holiday in the Caribbean which included a two-week stint as a medical intern In the Dominican Republic for a company called Gap Medics.

Describing her time spent in various hospitals and orphanages as both confronting and amazing, her day to day tasks included observing medical procedures, comforting children post-surgery, cleaning and weighing newborn babies and presenting them to their mothers after birth and witnessing various consultations.

All activities that were made increasingly difficult due to the high levels of poverty and lack of resources in the country, yet Kiera says it was an incredible experience to see just how innovative people can be in a crisis, as doctors use whatever they can find to help people in need.

When asked what this trip and the big wide world has taught her thus far she replied, there is so much more to our world than our little bubble and there is so much more to life than our own individual successes and failures. This trip has confirmed for her that being a doctor and traveling to less privileged countries to help in any way she can, is what she truly wants to do with her life.

Rosie Brown.