Balancing biomedicine studies with humanitarian work
20-year-old Monash School of Biomedical Sciences student, Entrepreneurship Ambassador and Monash Scholarship for Excellence recipient, Eliza Li, has recently been announced as a finalist for the2018 Victorian Young Achiever Awards(For Social Impact and Community Service). She was nominated for her commitment to improving global health access and equality.
Eliza travels to the Philippines annually withMaharlika Charity Foundationand volunteers her summer vacation to join medical missions, providing free healthcare to members of their indigent communities. During her two years of service, Eliza has joined three missions, assisted with more than thirty cleft lip and palate operations as a surgical scrub nurse, and watched hope be restored to the lives of hundreds of underprivileged patients.
Eliza will partner with a Philippine local government unit in 2019 to deliver a series of health education seminars on non-communicable diseases.
“Making health education accessible, relevant and a high-priority is central to improving health equality anywhere,” Eliza said.
When she is not abroad, Eliza volunteers her time with the Melbourne University Health Initiatives Material Aid Program, leading a team of students who redistribute surplus medical supplies to under-resourced health facilities overseas. Last year the program provided more than 700kg of free medical supplies to the Philippines, Fiji, Kenya and other countries.
Eliza remains humble with her humanitarian efforts, as she continues to pursue academic success and research in her double degree, Bachelor of Biomedicine and Commerce, at Monash University.
Eliza worked on a research article on the regulation of exploitative health supplements, published in The Conversation (co-authored with Associate Professor Ken Harvey OAM, Dr Rosemary Stanton and Professor Stuart Dashper) was nominated for best presentation at the 2017 International Conference for Undergraduate Research, featured in the Friends of Science in Medicine news and was cited by the Medical Journal of Australia.
After the research acted as a catalyst for a public campaign by CHOICE Consumer Advocacy Group, which shamed vitamin gummies as exploitative, unnecessary and unhealthy, Eliza earned a scholarship-supported cancer research placement at Hudson Institute of Medical Research, where she will investigate inflammatory pathways in colon cancer.
More recently, Eliza has taken the initiative to empower young girls by launching Reach-In Education, the first entrepreneurial experience program for female students in Melbourne high schools. She inspires female students to solve problems with start-up ideas, workshops how to launch and helps the students turn ideas into reality.
The winners of the Victorian Young Achiever Award will be announced at the Gala Dinner Presentation on 18 May. We commend Eliza on dedication to her education and her contributions to our community, and wish her luck for the Victorian Young Achiever Awards.