Finding your career niche in college can be hard – how do you know if you're pursuing the right degree? For 2013 UC graduate Kate Russell, the decision didn't come easy, and she changed her major three times before discovering UC's Public Health program. "I spent a lot of my time at UC learning to be persistent and to stay determined even when things were difficult," Kate says. "I was lucky enough to be in the first wave of students who graduated with a Bachelor of Public Health from UC and had incredible support from my course conveners, lecturers and tutors who really made my time on campus an enjoyable experience."

After settling into the Public Health program, Kate pursued a major in Biology which included some of UC's most unique units. "I remember wading waist deep in Lake Ginninderra looking for microscopic organisms and travelling to Jervis Bay to study the creatures living on the shore." In addition to her science and health courses, Kate was a UC student representative during a four week Public Health course in Mexico.

Since graduating from UC, Kate has been accepted into the Department of Social Services' graduate program, helping her to expand on her knowledge, build on her interests in community development and gain an understanding of the public service as a whole. Once Kate's graduate training is finished, she'll be able to progress into a permanent position with the department.

With UC's diverse course offerings and easy to access career guidance, Kate was able to get on a degree path that worked for her. "The Bachelor of Public Health was certainly the right choice for me," Kate says. "It's such a broad degree and in my cohort, I think nearly everyone had different interests and career aspirations. That room to be diverse really made the degree enjoyable."