Trust yourself to dream big, with former refugee & global health advocate Yasir Essar, MSc

In our latest podcast episode, we delve into a story of transition, courage, and the unwavering human spirit as our guest, Yasir Essar, swapped his dentistry scrubs for a career in public health amid the chaotic backdrop of a global pandemic and geopolitical turmoil. Yasir shares how visualizing achievements can provide a push to overcome challenges and demonstrates the powerful role mentors and community support play in guiding career paths, particularly for international students and professionals in new environments. His career transformation teaches us that with resilience, the right mindset, and community support, we can navigate through uncertainty and emerge with renewed purpose and aspirations.

You’ll Learn

• How the COVID pandemic led Yasir to public and global health and steps he took to transition into the field from dentistry
• Yasir’s experience continuing his education and career as a refugee in Canada, how he persevered through the uprooting of his life, and how his background shaped his current interest in refugee and global health
• Building and relying on a social support group and mentors to achieve your dreams and other ways to visualize your goals
• Tips for international students and remembering to take the time to care for yourself in a new country
• Using LinkedIn with intentionality as a tool to network, facilitate advocacy, tell stories, and make an impact

Today’s Guest

Yasir is a former refugee from Afghanistan who holds an MSc in Global Health from McMaster University.

Prior to moving to Canada, he lived as a refugee in Tajikistan after fleeing Afghanistan. During his time as a refugee, he continued to share his lived experience of refugee life.

Currently, he works as a Research Assistant at Western University in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and as a Community Scholar at the University of Calgary. Additionally, he holds a visiting academic position with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton. 

Yasir’s professional journey is marked by an unwavering commitment to knowledge and a passion for making a real-world impact. His scholarly work has been published in prestigious journals such as The Lancet, BMJ, and PLoS. He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) and holds multiple certificates from Wayne State University, the University of Geneva, McGill University, and the LinkedIn Learning Academy.

During his tenure as a Research Assistant at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center, he focused particularly on tuberculosis research, further enriching his expertise in infectious disease research.

Yasir is always eager to connect with like-minded professionals, share insights, and explore collaborative opportunities. He is open to guest lecture invitations on the topics of refugees, mentorship, and global health.

Resources

• Connect with Yasir on LinkedIn  

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

If you dream and then you put in the right effort, it is possible. So you need a component of hard work along with what you're dreaming, and every time you want to dream something or you want to achieve something, just write it down on a piece of note and just visualize how would you feel if you achieve that thing. You will certainly, you know, come to a point that this is the thing that you know I'm able to do, that if I put in the right effort and the feeling you'll get from doing bad, things will keep pushing you forward.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Welcome to PH Spotlight, a community for you to build your public health career with. Join us weekly right here, and I'll be here too. Your host, sujani Siva from PhSpot. Hi, yassir, and welcome to the PhSpot podcast. So lovely to have you here to share your story and then for us to actually meet. I think it's been a long time.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Thanks for having me. Sujani Pleasure to be here. It's been a long time and we are finally here after following one another on LinkedIn.

Speaker 2: 1:06

Yeah, and then I think we'll talk about that right, like the power of social media, especially LinkedIn, like I'm more of a LinkedIn user than any of the other social media platforms, especially for professional growth, but I've met some incredible people that I think I would have never met in. Like my public health career all thanks to LinkedIn, and this is one of those examples that Yasser and I used to just go back and forth in the comments, yeah, so it's nice to now finally sit down and hear your story, so welcome.

Speaker 1: 1:39

Thank you so much again.

Speaker 2: 1:41

You know, when I sit down with my guests it's nice for me to not know too much about them until the day I record, because I get very curious and very impressed by their background and kind of the journey that they took. So you were a dentist right Like to begin kind of that professional career path. Did you, I guess, know about the field of public health before wanting to pursue dentistry, or is that something that you kind of discovered as you were pursuing dentistry?

Speaker 1: 2:12

Yeah, so I have a very interesting journey. After finishing high school, my goal was to go into the medicine, but unfortunately I couldn't make it to the medicine. I ended up in dentistry. I liked dentistry for the first few years and then, for some reason, you know, as people say, that your career path can change every now and then I became interested in public health. It was when the pandemic hit Afghanistan.

Speaker 1: 2:36

I was really amazed at the work of our public health community responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and realized the importance of community work, public health. That's when I, you know, became interested in public health and started reading about public health, the role of public health, you know, in ensuring healthy communities, and started, you know, becoming interested in research. So the more that I, you know, indulged myself in public health and COVID-19 pandemic, I became interested in public health and then I left dentistry at all because I found something new. So that's how I ended up in public health and then from public health, slowly, you know, to global health. It's been like, you know, a journey of self-discovery.

Speaker 1: 3:20

I would say Started from the dentistry and now you know global health, and it's one of the, I think, the good things about discovering yourself. You don't have to, you know, be in one specific path your entire life. There are things that can happen in your life, or a moment that you know you can just take that as an inspiration or as an opportunity to shift your career path, and for me, that was COVID-19 pandemic. Honestly, that's how I ended up.

Speaker 2: 3:49

I'm guilty of this. When I was younger I had this perfect pathway imagined in my head and it was, you know, I had to do this, and then I had to do this, and then I had to do this. And sometimes it's very difficult for us to like convince ourselves that it's okay to explore outside of that path. And thinking that you were probably in your more senior years of your dental education when the pandemic kind of took place and you're kind of seeing it unfold in front of you and for you to make that decision, to say like maybe I won't be practicing as a clinician, to make that decision to say like maybe I won't be practicing as a clinician and try this other path.

Speaker 1: 4:30

Was that easy for you? It wasn't easy at all because all my classmates they were just focused on dentistry and when I was seeing them, like you know, doing the exam or doing the lectures, everyone was just following a specific path and it was only me and the entire class focused on public health, self-educating myself about, you know, public health, because we didn't focus too much on public health during our dental program. So, you know, for me it was really difficult at the beginning. It's more of a discovery and then when I found LinkedIn and followed people through LinkedIn, I took that as an inspiration that sometimes it's just OK, that if you're alone and discovering yourself, it's just that you have to trust your gut. So it wasn't easy at all and I would say that sometimes it can be very hard if you see you know your classmates, your peers or your friends following one specific path and you're the only one doing the opposite following one specific path and you're the only one doing the opposite.

Speaker 2: 5:27

Yeah, that takes a lot of courage to try to go against what many people around your social circle are doing. So when you think back to that moment, can you identify certain things? I guess jumping onto LinkedIn was one of those things where you kind of found a community within LinkedIn where you saw people exploring careers in public health. Were there other like moments you can remember where it kind of like made it okay for you to change your path.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Yeah, I think it was when I started learning about academic writing and research. Academic writing and research we started working on a paper about COVID-19 response in Afghanistan and how it affected the healthcare system. When it was published, that was just a huge motivation for me. That you know I'm building my background. You know this is going to my CV. You know I'm learning something about you know this pandemic and the response of my country to the pandemic, about you know this pandemic and the response of my country to the pandemic. So that's when I got, you know, extra motivation, that dose of extra motivation that I can continue this career path. Now I see the result, the reward that I have something you know, of a major achievement, a scientific publication. So that was a game changing moment, I think, for me when, I reflect about that.

Speaker 2: 6:45

Was that part of your coursework or was that extra work that you picked up?

Speaker 1: 6:49

It was just extra work that you know I was doing it with myself and some of the friends that I made. You know, through LinkedIn or through community no, it wasn't in our coursework, or you know something related to our program. All everything that I did, it was my own self-discovery. I started reading about it, about public health, you know, with check videos on YouTube, courses on Coursera, edx, those platforms where you can take courses. Those were all you know, little, little things that really helped a lot over time in terms of producing something that I can be proud of and continue this path.

Speaker 2: 7:24

Yeah, that's a really good way to kind of like test out if you're ready to make like that big decision. To kind of really like change or take a full left turn, right turn away from your path is kind of like testing it out with a side project. Like that Did you say. You met like collaborators on LinkedIn and that's how you started this project.

Speaker 1: 7:48

Yeah, I mean, it was honestly the power of LinkedIn. I didn't know about LinkedIn until it was the start of the pandemic, when I started using it. I took some courses about LinkedIn, to be honest, like I wanted to know how I can use this properly for my professional growth from the very early days. So those were the early days where people would post a lot about the pandemic response in different countries and, you know, I started building some kind of connections with some professors, some collaborators, and started to learn more about their work and work under the mentorship of some professors, and that's how I started to learn more through collaboration. Like sometimes, honestly, when I reflect about my own personal journey, I've learned more through collaboration than my you know traditional, you know dental program.

Speaker 1: 8:37

Very true, very true.

Speaker 2: 8:39

Did you decide to like complete your dental degree at that time?

Speaker 1: 8:43

I finished my program and that's when the crisis in Afghanistan, you know, took place, the crisis in August. I finished my program.

Speaker 1: 8:52

It was my first month of dental practice in the hospital but, due to the condition, back home you know, we couldn't stay in the country, obviously, so we left the country with my family, siblings, everyone. We went to Tajikistan. We became refugees. That's when the challenges started to grow in my life, because I wasn't prepared for all of this. I had a very, you know, strategic plan that I'm going to continue this public health path, you know, finish my dental program and then do an MPH somewhere abroad in the US, europe, uk but it didn't, you know, go through according to those plans, because the crisis took place. It was a humanitarian crisis, you know, occurred overnight. So we left the country. I became a refugee. Everything that I had planned collapsed. I couldn't take my diploma, you know, from the university, so I didn't have any documents when I left the university.

Speaker 2: 9:50

When.

Speaker 1: 9:50

I moved to Tajikistan. I started contacting like dozens of universities.

Speaker 1: 9:57

None of them you know, replied to me or showed, you know, their interest in getting me into their master's program in global health because I had my background, you know experience. You know their interest in getting into their master's program in global health because I had my background, you know experience, you know, finished my program but I didn't couldn't, you know, get my documents. We struggled a lot, honestly, even though I knew a lot of you know professors in various countries. We tried a lot. It was only McMaster University at Canada, when I reached out to Professor Pai that you know there is an opportunity at McMaster University and I really want to, you know, start my master's because I don't know, like, what am I going to do? Like I have passion, like, you know, I have energy, but I can't, you know, study here in Tajikistan because there were no opportunities for the refugees, like no opportunity to work, no opportunity to study. It was all blocked so I reached out to him.

Speaker 1: 10:50

He connected me with McMaster and McMaster just provided the admission without asking any documents, anything like. For me, that was a life-changing moment in my career because I was almost like hopeless that this will not work like I've studied five years, it's just nonsense now. Because I was almost like hopeless that this will not work Like I've studied five years. It's just nonsense now, because I can't go back to the country to get my documents. And here I have a list of dozens of universities they're not accepting me in their programs. So, mcmaster, they just provided me admission without asking any documents. Honestly, they just asked for my CV and a sample of writing and I was enrolled in their master's program and started my global health degree with McMaster. And since then I've been in the global health space and I think McMaster played a pivotal role in changing my life, my career. Otherwise I would have been stuck in that situation for a long time.

Speaker 2: 11:42

I would have been stuck in that situation for a long time. That's incredible and I think when so much around you is changing and you have absolutely no control, like how do you have the motivation to keep pushing yourself when every university is telling you, no, the path that you had, you know, imagined for yourself is nowhere in sight? Like, what is it that kept you emailing one more person?

Speaker 1: 12:16

for me, I was doing everything I could do in my control, and the rest, if it was out of my control, I would just stay motivated and always start with my friends. I had the support of, you know, my family, social network. That's when those are the moments that you realize that you really need the support of you know, a group of people to keep you going. Otherwise you can't just do it alone, and it was all honestly all collaborators and professors that I knew through linkedin, especially dr pie. I'm very grateful to him because he would check every time on me. Like you know how you're doing, like you know, things will change. Uh, you will end up in canada. You have admission, because I also faced like visa, uh delays as well. I, you know, didn't mention this I faced some visa delays as well with can, canada, because I got admission. Everything was really then I faced visa delays, so I had to do, you know, a few months of my master's program through zoom and it was so difficult due to the time difference that I had to stay awake till 2 am, 3 am to join the classes because of the time difference, like 12 or 13 hours time difference. But I said, like you know this is my opportunity. I'm going to persevere and join the classes because this is what I want you know in my life this master's degree, to get a document and, you know, continue my professional career.

Speaker 1: 13:37

So when I ended up in Canada, you know I realized the importance of you know, having mentors, a supportive university, a program where professors or your lecturers, they support you in your journey. Those people really played a crucial role in my life, Otherwise I wouldn't have done it. You know myself. You know sometimes you get hopeless, honestly, when things are blocked or when you are in a situation where you're a refugee, you don't have access to opportunities and you have people that support you. That provides you motivation. I think that keeps you going. You should have faith in your hard work that things will change. It won't seem the entire time. It will change for the better. You need to have that kind of mindset as well, and that mindset also helped me a lot in terms of going through those challenges during the migration journey.

Speaker 2: 14:31

Wow, I think this is an incredible story of perseverance and, yeah, I'm just trying to picture myself in that kind of a situation and, yeah, I'm still trying to like understand how you end up like pushing yourself every morning, right, and I think, like you said, focusing on the things that you do have control over and not getting demotivated by the things that you know factually that you absolutely have no control over, when there's that complete civil unrest and you're asked to like uproot overnight. So you ended up moving to Canada. Was it at the end of 2022?

Speaker 1: 15:17

Yeah, it was at the end of 2022 that I moved to Canada and joined my program. In January it was winter.

Speaker 1: 15:26

It was very cold, but for some reason I was so focused on my studies and program that I couldn't even, you know, notice the environment, the cold, and my classmates? They would reach out to me that. You know, yasser, how are you doing? Like, are you adapting to the environment, to the cold? It was very cold and for me, like me, like no, I don't care about it. Honestly, I just want to study, like for me, like I was out of university for a very long time and my only goal was to just sit in the class, you know, next to my classmates and you know, just enjoy the lectures.

Speaker 1: 15:58

but yeah, I really enjoyed Hamilton, toronto, and met you met some friends there as well, some people that I knew through LinkedIn a lot, who we met in person. It was a really nice time to spend the winter term and the summer at McMaster and then I had the opportunity to do my practicum at McGill under the supervision of Professor Madhu Pai, with his as a research assistant. I work on the tuberculosis projects and, you know, contributed to policy briefs writing and, you know, some projects related to tuberculosis. So I really enjoyed that time. You know, being a student at McMaster, with all the exposure that I received and the good thing about you know, I have good memories from McMaster.

Speaker 1: 16:42

One of them was that I was and the good thing about you know I have good memories from McMaster. One of them was that I was at health policy class and I reached out to my professor and I told him that you know I need some time with you, know the assignment. He said, like you just arrived to Canada, take some time, don't worry about the assignments, make sure you know you enjoy, you know your time and then you know, whenever you're comfortable, you're settled, then work on the assignment. So you really realize that you know people give you the support and it makes you very, you know, happy.

Speaker 2: 17:10

You know in those moments that you know you become more grateful of the community that you have around yourself yeah, I always like to tell people like you can't do life alone, like the complete community to like support you during the highs and the lows right of your life.

Speaker 2: 17:30

I think if you accomplish something that you're so proud of, it feels so much more like joyful to share that with people, and equally so when you are like stuck in your career or don't know where to go in your case, like literally have no other pathway like leaning on people should be the first thing that you think of, and for that I think you know a lot of the things that you did right, knowingly or unknowingly was like establish that strong, like network of people, the, the community that you built around yourself virtually, which then ended up being so like, so helpful for you yeah okay, so you get into McMaster, you're working on your master's degree in global health, and then you get to go to montreal to yeah, on a great uh practicum with an incredible I guess mentor there, and then you graduate from the program and then where does life take you then?

Speaker 1: 18:33

yeah, I mean after graduation I thought I might take some risks, but I applied for a few job opportunities and I ended up being selected. The job opportunity was at Calgary. So I was unsure whether I have to make that big shift to Alberta from Ontario. I talked to a few friends and they recommended me. Just, you know, give it a try, Go there, get some work experience, Canadian work experience, because you really need it in this country. So I made that big shift, moved to Calgary and I worked with an organization called ANGA, Alberta International Medical Graduate Association. I worked as project coordinator and vaccine navigator.

Speaker 1: 19:12

So our project was focused on immigrants and refugees and for me I had that lived experience of refugees and for me that was a perfect role and job to work with the population and contribute to some of the you know challenges that they face in terms of resolving it. So the project was funded by PHAC, Public Health Agency of Canada and we had, like government of Alberta, stakeholders and some other immigrant serving organizations. It was six-month project with the community. So I was working on the ground with the refugees, checking their medical records. If they have any missing vaccines. I would do some health promotion webinars for them in the first language to build the trust because they were also facing those language barrier issues as well. I really liked that experience being on the ground with all those communities and building the trust.

Speaker 1: 20:09

We ended up vaccinating a large scale of refugees in Alberta, something that I think was around 500. Newcomers did be vaccinated with flu and COVID. There were a lot of issues with misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. I mean, I've read a lot about those in the literature but when you're on the ground you hear from the people. It's a different experience and that's when you realize that you have to tailor your information to every group, Like every group requires a different approach, have to consider the cultural nuances in different communities. It was a fantastic job opportunities but I'll be honest, in the first one or two months I was a little bit under stress because it was just right after my graduation that.

Speaker 1: 20:55

I thought I might go around a little bit, enjoy Canada, but it just happened. I think I'm grateful for the experience. That experience was very useful for me in terms of building my resume, my experience in Canada, because I was just the person who talked with the government, with the PHAP, with everyone, with the team. So imagine the stress of communicating with those stakeholders. But gladly, it was a contract job. It ended and then I moved to Edmonton. Since then I've been working with various universities Western University, university of Calgary and University of Alberta as well. At the same time it's casual, you know positions, but I love, you know love what I'm doing with these departments and working on some important projects related to the vaccines, refugee health in Afghanistan and, you know, maybe you want to start a career in public health.

Speaker 2: 21:50

to now, I guess that's about two to three years later actually doing the work. What are some of the reflections like that you have? Is it exactly as you imagined kind of reading about it and then being the person doing the work?

Speaker 1: 22:16

Yeah, of course, like I reflect about it and you know, when I see myself, like sometimes I do ask myself, like if I go like you know, five years back, you know when I see myself, like sometimes I do ask myself like if I go like you know five years back, you know what do I think? Like where would I be? Like I'm exactly where I want to be. I've worked, you know, on myself and I think the belief was very important because when you come from a conflict setting a country that is, you know, affected by the war crisis for almost four decades, sometimes it's very hard to dream big but, you've got to trust yourself and have that community of people that supports you because you can't do it alone.

Speaker 1: 22:53

So those were the little things, like you know, that I did, you know, during my dental program, and then the support that I received from people has helped me to be here, you know, and doing the work that I love to do. So it's I think everything was just perfectly aligned and fall into the right places for me to be here yeah, how do you dream big?

Speaker 2: 23:17

yes, sir, you know, sometimes you have goals and the goals seem very reasonable and sometimes you might not think that you can do even more. I'm curious to know, like, how did you end up dreaming big? Like what were some ways that really pushed you to do that?

Speaker 1: 23:37

That's a very good question. Thank you for asking that. I read a lot of books like novels. I read about the books of some people that are really involved in the space of global health, like Dr Paul Farmer, from how he started doing work in humanitarian settings like Haiti and tackling all health inequities. So when you read about history and the background of those people from where they started, you ultimately come to this realization that you can also do it if you trust yourself and follow the path that they have followed.

Speaker 1: 24:10

And then I watch some movies as well. You take inspiration from movies as well sometimes, to be honest, and see how those little moments in your life or a moment like pandemic that can change your life as it has changed mine. So for me, dreaming is all about like if you dream and then you put in the right effort, it is possible. But if you just keep dreaming and you're not putting the right amount of work, I think it's not going to happen. So you need a component of hard work along with what you're dreaming, and every time you want to dream something or you want to achieve something, just write it down on a piece of note and just visualize how would you feel if you achieve that thing. You will certainly, you know, come to a point that you know this is the thing that you know. I'm able to do that if I put in the right effort and the feeling you will get from doing bad things will keep pushing you forward.

Speaker 1: 25:04

So for me, I followed out those kind of things and I always follow my mentors.

Speaker 1: 25:10

You know my mentors they guide me what I have to do like a right mentor person. Can a mentor, can you know, shape your career through their honest feedbacks, through, through their advices, thoughts. You have to be willing to accept what they say. You know their honest feedback and then you start to realize that you know you don't have to experience like you know failures if you have the right mentors. You don't have to like experience like constant failures If you follow a specific path, a path that your mentors have followed, and you take inspiration for them. And if you're stuck at something, always reach out to your mentor.

Speaker 1: 25:48

So, those are some of the ways that I believe dreaming big can be possible. You have people like you, have your social support, people that can help you get to that dream, because you're not going to do it alone. At the end of the day, you need the support from everyone in achieving that dream, and for me, in my case, it was the support of my program, mcmaster University, support of my professor, support of my parents, siblings. Everyone played a pivotal role in making this dream possible.

Speaker 2: 26:19

Yeah, I think something else you said earlier on was mindset right, so shifting your mindset to believe that you can do it possible. Yeah, and I think something else you said earlier on was mindset right, so shifting your mindset to believe that you can do it. And when you're reading books, listening to podcasts or watching movies, instead of thinking like I'd like to do that one day, you kind of say like I can do that, how do I make it happen? And like shifting that mindset. And I think, yeah, getting inspiration from the people, shifting that mindset. And I think, yeah, getting inspiration from the people around you, and I think that's why it's so important to surround yourself with people that you look up to, but then also people who you can relate to, who kind of like, look like you have had the same lived experiences as you, because they make it possible for you to dream big, I think right.

Speaker 2: 27:02

Yeah, okay, so you've had an incredible journey and we talked about, like, how mentorship is huge, networking is huge, leveraging LinkedIn, you know, has been incredible for you. A lot of people that also come across PHSpot and some of the tools and resources we put out are international students and, you know, for me personally, I'm not able to share a personal story that could relate with them, so I love having guests like you who have the lived experience and you can provide advice for them. Like heard the steps that you had taken, but are there any specific things that you wish you had known while you were kind of going through this journey as an international student in Canada?

Speaker 1: 27:50

yeah, I mean, since landing to Canada, like I've been reflecting a lot about my journeys and I, honestly, you know, set myself one day and I started, you know, jotting down all the experiences I have had in Canada as international students and I put put that in LinkedIn. A lot of people resonated with, you know, some of the experiences I've had in Canada. I think one of the things that I really wished I'd known is making friends in Canada when I moved there, like I thought it's very hard to you know, hang out with people or make new friends.

Speaker 1: 28:23

It was just that, you know, assumption that I, you know, had that I'll, you know I'll be alone in this country, you know, just doing, you know everything that I have to do to achieve my dreams. But there are people here that you can, you know, make some new friends, you know. Go out with them, enjoy some moments, because you also have to take care of your mental health, you know, and give yourself some time to, you know, absorb things around yourself, enjoy the community. That's one of the important things that I realized that you have to have that courage to make new friends.

Speaker 1: 28:57

In Canada, if you are an international student, because you need the support of, you know, your friends, because this is a new country for you. Honestly, your friends, because this is a new country for you when you land, this is a new country for you. Culture is, you know, everything is different. You have to work hard, but you also need your friends to go out with them, you know, have some fun, enjoy, you know, the process, Because you have to really enjoy that, because at the end of the day it might get overwhelming for you. So it takes some time to enjoy that.

Speaker 1: 29:24

And there were some other lessons that you know, I reflected on, such as believing in yourself. I have that belief in myself when I landed in this country that this country is full of opportunities. But how do you, you know, prepare yourself for those opportunities? It first starts with you know, having that belief in yourself that you yourself, that I, can grab those opportunities. If I put in the right planning, study hard, you can get to those opportunities. So believing in yourself is also very important.

Speaker 1: 29:54

Embracing the culture when you're in this country, have that courage to embrace other people's culture. It's really amazing when you hang out with people and you enjoy their foods. You know their company, you know. Try some new stuff, some crazy things. You you obviously you know. Learn to enjoy the experience of being an international student. Embrace other people's culture.

Speaker 1: 30:17

Take care of your health as well, because in this country, if you're alone as international student, you have your studies on one side. You know the pressure of your health as well, because in this country, if you're a Lawless International student, you have your studies on one side. You know the pressure of living alone, your finances. It can put a toll on your mental health. But make sure that you also put some time for your body, for your mind, you know, take care of it. Go for an exercise, for a walk. I used to do that every time when I would get overwhelmed. Just a simple, you know, walk or run can, you know, really help you a lot in terms of changing the momentum in your mind.

Speaker 1: 30:53

So, yeah, those are some of the you know lessons that I came across while reflecting about my experiences with international students, because I come to realize that there is a lot going on.

Speaker 1: 31:04

You know, when you come to this country, especially with the housing crisis, with you know, financial insecurity, you can just get overwhelmed, you know, in a few days if you just think about all the you know challenges here. But if you take it one at a time, one at a time, and you have friends, you are connected with your family, you'll get support from them as well. You are able to overcome all these struggles and make yourself a new person, a new version of yourself in this country, and go for all those opportunities that excites you. Yeah, take care of those things, say, for international students, and I've always advocated for them, because this country and everything that's going on here can be very challenging for you as well in terms of you know your health, your motivation, so make sure that you enjoy the process and make some plans accordingly to you know, follow your goals and also take care of your health.

Speaker 2: 32:02

I absolutely love your positivity, yasir. I think just listening to you and the way you frame every challenge and the way that you're able to take a positive approach on everything is very, very inspiring.

Speaker 2: 32:18

Thank you, I think I personally needed to hear that and it's good advice for anybody I think not just international students right Taking care of yourself, making friends, surrounding yourself with people who are going to make you enjoy life, because I think sometimes we can just get so focused on, like, achieving the next career goals that we forget the other side of life.

Speaker 1: 32:42

Yeah, always good to take some time off, and at least the weekends. Yeah, absolutely Go out somewhere and enjoy, breathe and have some fun.

Speaker 2: 32:52

Yeah, linkedin. So we heard the different ways that LinkedIn has helped you kind of with your professional growth. Are there any other areas or stories that you can think of to really showcase the power of social media? If people are still hesitant to get on to LinkedIn they're feeling shy. I wonder if there are any other stories that could really help them like say, okay, maybe today's the day I sign up for an account or react to my account.

Speaker 1: 33:23

Yeah, I think LinkedIn has played a great role in shaping my career, from getting the scholarship to landing in Canada and connecting with people through LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 33:36

It's such a great way of building your profile using LinkedIn and it doesn't really require a lot of effort if you just, you know, use it with intentionality. I always use the word intentionality because every time I go to LinkedIn, I use that for an intention, for a positive purpose to connect with people and, to you know, share my story. I like storytelling, so when I give them an opportunity, you know I write something about, you know, my country, or I write something about a global health issue that is affecting people around the world, and it's a way for me to create awareness about some pressing issues we face collectively, you know, around the world. So that's one way of, you know, putting yourself out there and doing advocacy or the things that you like to do, like for me, it's refugee hell that I post a lot about it. It's about health inequities that you know I want to post about it on LinkedIn to connect with people, you know their thoughts, how they feel.

Speaker 1: 34:32

You know about those things. It's not only for, honestly, you know, seeking job opportunities. It's just one of the uses of the LinkedIn. Then you can utilize that, you know, for your own professional group, but you can also use that to build your communication skill. You know how you communicate with people. You know how you comment to the post of people that you like and you want to be connected with, and you know, obviously, storytelling is a platform that you can openly share your story and connect with people.

Speaker 1: 35:02

For me, it has helped me a lot. Like I use LinkedIn like every single day, honestly. Like you know, when I wake up, you know I check my feeds. You know when I go to bed, before going to bed, I also, you know, check my feeds and see if there's something interesting, I bookmark the post and I can always come back and read the post and share my comments, my opinions, you know, with some of the posts that I feel you know connected with, if you're someone that wants to build community or communication skills, their storytelling skills, networking, linkedin can be, you know, a starting point for you and then obviously you can slowly, you know, start building connections with some professors there as well, and then maybe end up meeting them in person. After communicating with them, it's one of the best platforms for young people, I would say, if they start using that with the right purpose.

Speaker 2: 35:55

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:56

And you know, with the right goals, that I want to achieve this goal and LinkedIn can be a contributing factor, you know, in helping achieving my goals.

Speaker 2: 36:04

When I like run webinars or workshops. A question I like to ask people is if you could describe what you want out of your public health career in one word, what would it be? And every single time, every single year, I run it the one word that keeps coming up the most frequently is the word impact, and I think, as you're speaking and you're kind of like giving examples of how LinkedIn could be very useful, you know, for storytelling, for engaging people on different causes that you're passionate about, that word kept coming to mind, because I think it's a great platform to see impact in the areas that you really feel passionate about, right, I think?

Speaker 2: 36:46

if you can put out that passion into words on LinkedIn. It attracts the people that have similar interests and passion and it connects you with them, you with them, and together you can probably go off and work on something similar to what you did, you know publish that paper and see that impact unfold right in front of your eyes.

Speaker 2: 37:10

Yeah, out into the world without having to wait for like some senior management person to like approve it and wait five years for your program to actually be rolling out into the world. So I think it's a really good way to like see impact. If you're somebody that's like okay, I really want to see my work out there in the world you've said it, it right Sudan.

Speaker 1: 37:35

It's how you put you know your work out there in the world and connect people through LinkedIn, and I'm very sure that you've also had experience using LinkedIn and you know connecting with your audience. For me, it's also one of those things that you know, you find, you know your people. You know people you want to write, you know for so and that's also the beauty of LinkedIn that people keep following you, reposting your content and you're also posting a useful you know stuff for your own audience and that's how you know you know, continue growing on the LinkedIn and you see the results of you know using LinkedIn, you know your growth for your audience and for your passion as well.

Speaker 2: 38:17

So here's a challenge for anybody listening that's feeling a bit shy to get onto LinkedIn. When this podcast goes live. I want people to go and comment and say like I'm going to do X, y, z on LinkedIn this month, that's your commitment. So let Yasir and myself know what you're going to do and tag us in any of the projects or posts that you make Thinking about the future. Yassir, what are you most excited about with your public health career?

Speaker 1: 38:44

For me, visualization is a tool that I always visualize and see myself in the next five to 10 years. What am I going to do? Sometimes it's very difficult honestly to answer questions like these, because you are in the path of discovering yourself, and, for me, discovery I think I really like that word because there's always something new that you can go in, enjoy yourself, challenge yourself and become a better version of yourself. What I'm really interested about my global health or public health career is that in the next five to 10 years, I want to be somewhere that I can impact locally and globally.

Speaker 1: 39:22

You know about some of the topics or you know things that I'm very interested in, for example, the refugee crisis, because right now, unfortunately, we see unprecedented crisis happening around the world. We see unprecedented crisis happening around the world and for that we need young people to step up and work on resolving this crisis, because it's see so many young people displaced by the crisis, whether it's climate crisis, war, conflict. Young people, at the end of the day, are the victims of those crises and we need young people with lived experience, affected by those crises, to come together and advocate for those issues and call on our world leaders to make this world a better place for all young people, because I really don't want to wish what I experienced for someone else, because it can be very hard deteriorating for your mental health, for your physical health, and not everyone can go through the same challenges or would have access to the same support network. So I really wish that in the future we, as young people, come together and work towards building a better world for everyone.

Speaker 2: 40:58

I love that I'm going to speak on your behalf and encourage anybody who has a similar mission in their public health careers to reach out to you and connect and see how you could work on that together. Thank you so much, yasir, for joining me, for sharing your story. It's incredible for me to get to learn about a lot of the friends that I end up meeting and making on LinkedIn, and I'm just so grateful to have a podcast like this to have an excuse to talk to people and, yeah, build my network in my community and then bring it out to the rest of the PH spot community.

Speaker 1: 41:32

so thank you very much thank you so much, susanne, for having me. It was a great pleasure to talk about my experience and also learning from you, because I'm a big fan of your posts on LinkedIn, so you know things you post about. You know public health community job opportunities on your page. It's very resourceful and I always tune into your page and follow what you post and really appreciate the work you're doing for the public health community thank you, hey.

Speaker 2: 42:05

I hope you enjoyed that episode and if you want to get the links or information mentioned in today's episode, you can head over to phspotorg slash podcast and we'll have everything there for you.

Speaker 2: 42:17

And before you go, I want to tell you about the Public Health Career Club.

Speaker 2: 42:21

So if you've been looking for a place to connect and build meaningful relationships with other public health professionals from all around the world, you should join us in the Public Health Career Club.

Speaker 2: 42:33

We launched the club with the vision of becoming the number one hangout spot dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.

Speaker 2: 42:41

And in addition to being able to connect and build those meaningful relationships with other public health professionals, the club also offers other great resources for your career growth and success, like mindset coaching, job preparation clinics and career growth strategy sessions in the form of trainings and talks, all delivered by experts and inspiring individuals in these areas. So if you want to learn more or want to join the club, you can visit our page at phspotorg slash club and we'll have all the information there. And you know, as a space that's being intentionally curated to bring together like-minded public health professionals who are not only there to push themselves to become the best versions of themselves, but also each other, and with that I can't wait to see how this is going to have a ripple effect in the world, as we all work together to better the health of our populations and just have immense impact in the world, and I hope you'll be joining us in the Public Health Career Club.