When Keisha Nash was in primary school she would go to Monash’s Peninsula Campus with her mother, who was completing her Bachelor of Education, and sister. Sitting in lectures and tutorials Keisha would tell her mother she would follow in her footsteps and attend Monash. “She really inspired and supported me to pursue higher education, and continues to inspire me today,” she says.

Keisha’s mother, and her relatives before her, are Torres Strait Islanders. Despite being so far from her extended Torres Strait family, Keisha’s parents immersed her and her sister in her culture. She regularly spoke to family there. As she grew up, Keisha saw the health issues that faced her mob and developed a strong interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.

She completed a Bachelor of Science degree through Monash, starting it under the Monash Indigenous Enabling Program in 2014, but realised she had a passion for obstetrics and gynaecology. As part of the selection process for a Doctor of Medicine at Monash, Keisha undertook a 40-minute interview with an Indigenous panel – an Indigenous medical academic, student support and Aboriginal elder – through the Gukwonderuk unit.

“The unit are fantastic and tried to make the process as transparent and culturally safe as possible. They have been very supportive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students throughout the degree.”

Keisha says she battled “imposter syndrome”, thinking she “didn’t deserve” to be in medicine. “However, I quickly learnt that I wasn’t the only one experiencing these thoughts. It was difficult to change my mindset.”

Studying at Churchill with a smaller cohort of people made campus life easier.

“The staff at Churchill understood we were completing quite an intensive year away from home and would go the extra mile to make us feel welcome and when they were teaching us,” she says. “I would also like to acknowledge the amazing administrative and teaching staff at Peninsula Health for all the support they provided for my peers and I in my last three years of my medical degree.”

Overall, university was a “fantastic” experience as Keisha engaged in Monash clubs, made lifelong friends, and met her partner of six years.

Passionate about rural, remote, and Indigenous health, she represented Monash on the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association (AIDA) student representative council, and was a co-president of the WILDFIRE rural, remote, and Indigenous Health Club for Monash.

She completed several internships under the CareerTrackers Indigenous internship program

at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in its Molecular Medicine and Cancer research teams, and BUPA in its clinical governance unit.

Keisha graduates late in 2021 and commences as a junior doctor at Peninsula Health in 2022. She hopes to train later in obstetrics and gynaecology and work between Melbourne and the Torres Strait, and to continue to mentor younger Aboriginal and Islander students.