There’s been a healthy amount of success this year for Carly Solomon, who not only secured a First Class Honours degree, but was also awarded a £10,000 scholarship to further her studies, and scooped a Best Dissertation accolade given by the Public Health Alumni and Friends Society.
The 31-year-old Public Health graduate, who was born in the North East but grew up just outside of London, has certainly been living life to the full as she struck the balance between writing her award-winning paper, and looking after her two daughters.
Carly said: “I have two little girls at home and I've split my time between them and my dissertation this year. Shamefully my dissertation took priority a lot of the time, it was my third child.”
The dissertation focused on exploring HIV/AIDS care amongst the migrant population in the UK, and came from her passion for global health. Her findings recommended a need for targeted, audience appropriate, sexual health promotion for individual migrant cultures.
Carly added: “I have a real passion for global health, and a sister who works in the United Nations. A recent trip to the UN Headquarters in New York inspired me to explore the discourse and healthcare pathways between migrants and HIV/AIDS.
“It was interesting to learn about the stigma involved within various cultures and how in the west our perception of HIV/AIDS has changed dramatically with the advancement of highly sophisticated anti-retroviral drugs, but this shift in stigma around a diagnosis has not been adopted in many of the cultures I explored.
“My main recommendation was blindingly obvious. Many migrants live in fear of knowing their HIV status due to cultural stigma; this has to change in the U.K. We can't as a country use people economically yet ignore their healthcare needs.”
Now looking forward to a well earned summer break, Carly is quick to credit the support she received at the University of Sunderland for helping her to complete her degree.
“This is a bit cheesy but I've formed a strong professional relationship with all of my lecturers. As a mature student I've really embraced all the recommended reading, tutorials and general advice from my lecturers.
“My dissertation would not be what it was without my supervisor Yitka Graham. It got to the point I was emailing her so much she might have considered sending my endless emails to junk. But she didn't, thankfully, and I owe Yitka so much for her knowledge and guidance.
“I am still a bit shocked about the award. There were some great students in my class; a lot of them probably deserve the award just as much as me. I'll never forget the stressful hours in the library buried under books. I also tried my best to help anyone who needed it, and learned so much from them, so it's probably an award for all of us really.”