Lumen Winter 2018 - Flipbook - Page 4
SA’S NEWEST
RHODES SCHOLAR
SHINES LIGHT ON
RURAL HEALTH
Dr Claudia Paul has
achieved a lot in her 24
years but her goals are
even more impressive.
STORY BY NICK CARNE
The University of Adelaide graduate hopes
to be one of the first (if not the first) female
Indigenous surgeons in Australia and
eventually establish a surgical outreach
service to rural and remote areas.
“My plan is to change the life of one
patient at a time, one community at a time,
and eventually reduce the morbidity and
mortality of those suffering in outback
Australia,” she said.
First, however, there is a Master of
Traumatology to complete, followed almost
immediately by a PhD at Oxford University
in the UK.
Last year, Dr Paul, a Wiradjuri woman,
became only the third Australian Indigenous
person to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship,
following proudly in the footsteps of the
first – 2010 University of Adelaide graduate
Rebecca Richards.
“To have started university just after Rebecca
was announced as a Rhodes Scholar felt very
special to me,” Dr Paul said. “To walk that
2
The University of Adelaide
path, knowing that others have
already walked it – it somehow feels a
little easier now, more obtainable.
“And hopefully, by being an Indigenous
Rhodes Scholar, I will help to make it feel a
little easier again for the next person.”
In fact, Richards helped get the ball rolling
for Dr Paul, who read in a University
magazine about her decision to be part of
a study tour of Oxford at the end of her
final year. Subsequently, Dr Paul decided
to do the same.
At the end of 2016, she met with a few
research supervisors, went through the
colleges and generally got a feel for Oxford
University and the city. “I wanted to try to
ensure that if I was ‘accepted’, the only likely
shock would be the weather,” she said.
Accepted she was, initially to do a Master
of Science in International Health and
Tropical Medicine – but things changed over
Christmas. She realised that if all went well,
in a bit over three years from now she would
hold three Masters degrees but not a PhD.
