Joanna Byrne | December 16, 2019
When Lily Falzon started at Notre Dame, she thought she wanted to be a doctor. Five years later, she graduated with a bachelor of arts in sociology, a minor in Chinese, and a scholarship to study at Yenching Academy of Peking University in Beijing. It was during her time in London that her perspective began to shift.
Falzon initially chose to study abroad in London as she was able to take premed courses, allowing her to continue on the track to becoming a doctor. What she didn’t anticipate was that one of those courses would convince her to drop her pre med major and pursue sociology.
“Taking that course convinced me that medical school is not actually the route that I want to follow in my career,” reflects Falzon. “I am more interested in studying healthcare from different perspectives, particularly the perspectives discussed in this course.”
The course in question was “Culture in Medicine," taught by London Global Gateway faculty member Dr. Ayesha Ahmad. Instead of looking at medicine from a purely biomedical standpoint, Ahmad’s course is based in anthropology and philosophy, exploring the role culture plays in healthcare. Falzon was struck by this new approach, and it quickly began to have an impact on her plans for the future.
Read more here.
Originally published by at dailydomer.nd.edu on December 16, 2019.