2024 Invite Health Recap

Message from Sachi

Today, I’m sharing my 2024 recap with Invite Health. When I think about some of the most transformative experiences I’ve had in 2024, I know that bringing Invite Health back is at the top of the list.

This newsletter also marks my last newsletter of 2024, as I’ll be taking a break from posting until 2025 🥳 

Sachi 💌

Invite Health 2024 Recap

Reflecting back on 2024

Invite Health’s 2024 in numbers:

• 25 interviews - suitable for upcoming 2025 year

• Surpassed 1,400 subscribers - I started 2024 with ~350 subscribers

• 27 months of Invite Health

At the start of the year, I announced that I was bringing back Invite Health. I wrote up a vision board of all the things I wanted to achieve in 2024:

I’ve achieved objectives 1 and 4. While I didn’t achieve the other objectives (especially objective 5), I don’t feel disappointed because Invite Health has had an incredible year.

One of the biggest takeaways I’ve learned this year is that measuring and quantifying “impactful work” is complex. Numbers can demonstrate impact, but impact is felt through stories, messages, and testimonies. The personal messages I receive about Invite Health are the ones that make me feel like I’ve actually made an impact.

There are many things I’m proud of with the changes I made to 2024 this year - turning interviews from focussing on student’s singular job experience to sharing their whole story, changing up the format of the newsletters, starting a “How I Built Invite Health” sub-series, and much more 💌 

2024 Invite Health Interviews

1. The Art & Science of Medicine: Interview with Jasmine Wu

2. It Was Not Acci-Dental: Lana Amoudi's Journey to Becoming a Dentist

3. Healthcare Innovation with a Harvard Grad: Interview with Imtisaal Mian

4. From Corporation to Campus: Cultivating Opportunities in Research

5. From the Recruiter: Interview with Isabelle Linden, Director of Research Services at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute

6. How to Break Into Tech with a Health Sci Degree: Interview with Ana Han

7. From Health Sciences to Canadian Climate Policy: Interview with Harshini Ramesh

8. Why you don’t need a PhD to get started in biotech: Interview with Subaita Rahman

9. How to Get Started Building in Biology: Interview with Michael Trinh

10. How to do an Organic Chemistry PhD Straight Out of Undergrad: Interview with Rowan Ives

11. How to Build a Portfolio Career in Research, Consulting, and VC: Interview with Kyle Jackson

12. How to Become a Fully Funded US MD/PhD Student as a Canadian: Interview with David Zhu

13. How to Build a Global Health Career & Find International Opportunities: Interview with Alexia Piccolo

14. How to Build an Award-Winning Career in OT, Advocacy, and Research: Interview with Sara Emira

15. Finding Global Health Positions Through Invite Health: Interview with Anoushka Jere

16. How to Secure Paid Internships as a Life Sciences Student: Interview with Rubaina Farin 

17. Using Research to Make a Difference for South Asian Communities: Interview with Tanveer Randhawa

18. Guide to Canadian Student Research Funding & Finding Research Positions at McGill: Interview with Benjamin Lévesque Kinder

19. How to Build a Career in Clinical Psychology & Research: Interview with Zuha Durrani

20. How to Build a Portfolio Career Across Advocacy, Public Health, and Clinical Research: Interview with Marwah Azizi

21. How to Kick-Start Your Undergrad Research Career & Build Your Passions Outside of the Lab: Interview with Suky Zheng

22. How to Break into Longevity and Biotech with an Engineering Background: Interview with Maggie Li

23. How to Boost Your Research Application and Use Community Resources: Interview with Juliane

24. How to Balance Pharmacy, Pro Badminton, and Everything in Between: Interview with Jacqueline Cheung

25. How to Translate Biomedical Innovation into Social and Economic Progress: Interview with Aishwarya Khanduja

Other posts I’ve created this year

1. World Health Summit 2024 Recap

2. Paid Summer Programs for Life Science & Health Science Students in Canada

3. Triple Milestones & Why I Built Invite Health

Outreach & Opportunities from Invite Health

Invite Health has opened many doors for me - thank you to everyone here for inviting me to share my story!

itswynette YouTube Channel: Friday with Friends | Jan 2024

The Rejected Pre-Med Podcast with Valeria Rusnak | Nov 2024

Oxford Department of Primary Care Health Sciences | Dec 2024

Impact Labs Programme, Skoll Centre, Oxford | October - December 2024

I wrote about Invite Health in my application to be part of the programme!

McMaster Public Health Association’s Podcast: Unpacking Public Health | December 2024

More Growth

Invite Health has also allowed me to 1) make incredible new friends 2) grow to 3k+ LinkedIn followers 3) develop the foundation for my MSc dissertation research ☺️ 

Biggest Lessons from Invite Health Interview Guests

💌 Create opportunities for yourself. If an opportunity doesn’t exist (ex: an application is closed, or there is no job opening), create one. Send a cold email, re-connect with someone that might be able to help you, or share about your work online.^{1, 2, 3}

💌 Pursue portfolio careers. Build yourself a portfolio career - be a student, researcher, creative, entrepreneur, content creator, VC, athlete, etc. Your interests interconnect more than you may think, and it is possible to pursue all of them.^{4, 5, 6}

💌 Grow with community. A community being people who share common interests with you (whether that’s longevity, global health, policy, etc). It’s much more enjoyable to nurture your passions when you can do it with others who are on similar paths. And if you can’t find a community, start one! ^{7, 8, 9}

💌 Build in public. By sharing your interests and initiatives “in public” (i.e. on your personal social media), your people (community) will find you. You never know who you’ll meet or what opportunities will arise when you put yourself out there. Use social media to create and “build”, as opposed to only consume content. ^{10, 11, 12} 

💌 It’s more than a job.* A job is a vehicle where you can translate your passion for [xyz] into tangible impact. Jobs are also stepping stones in your career, demonstrating proof that you are passionate about the cause. Through jobs, you create lifelong friendships, a sense of purpose, and build confidence.^{13, 14, 15} 

*This is why I’m so passionate about researching employment as a determinant of health in my MSc dissertation!

Impact ❤️ 

Invite Health is nothing without the community - thank you for taking the time to send me each of these messages (yes I do keep a collection of them ☺️)

Final Messages

Regardless of how long you’ve been following Invitte Health, thank you for tagging along! I am filled with so much gratitude when I think about how far Invite Health has come since September 2022, and all the incredible people I’ve met along the way.

I still have so much to reflect on from 2024, and am now in a season of rest. I will be taking a break from posting on Invite Health until 2025.

Enjoy your holidays and winter break, and see you in 2025! 💌 

About Invite Health 💌 

I started Invite Health for my younger self who was trying to figure out what to do with my health sci degree that wasn’t a career in medicine.

Today, I’d say this quote is the primary reason I continue to build Invite Health:

The mission of Invite Health is to close this talent-opportunity gap for students in the life and health sciences.

Since 2022, we’re the leading resource for students figuring out what to do with a life sci / health sci degree. I interview students pursuing diverse careers in healthcare, and how they got there - no gatekeeping here. Every newsletter is rich with resources and insights.

Our main channel is this newsletter, and I occasionally share resources on social media (LinkedIn and Instagram).

You can read more about why I built Invite Health here

How to get the most out of Invite Health 🫶

1. Connect with the interviewees: At the end of every newsletter, the interviewees leave their contact information for you to contact them. In your message, mention that you learned about their journey through Invite Health, and that you’re curious to learn more!

2. Share the word: Share Invite Health with your friends and networks. Start a conversation about something you learned- an opportunity, a piece of advice, or a recommendation that an interviewee made.

3. Bet on yourself: Apply to the opportunities that are shared in the newsletters. You have nothing to lose, and so much to gain. Circling back to point #1 - always reach out to the interviewees if you want advice!

You 🤝 Invite Health

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Read all of Invite Health’s past interviews

How I Built Invite Health - BTS 🌼 

I’m building a series where I share insights on how I built Invite Health. In two years, I’ve grown Invite Health organically to 1,400 subscribers (meaning, I’ve spent $0), building it sustainably as a solo student founder throughout undergrad and my Master’s.

Build in Public.

As mentioned in this newsletter, building in public means sharing the process of building your [insert initiative, newsletter, community, project, app] online. As opposed to only sharing the final result, share the iterations and learnings along the way. One of the ways I’ve adopted this in Invite Health is through creating this sub-series, and building in public on my LinkedIn.

Free Links & Resources 🫰 

• Applying to Grad Schools Notion Guide by Sachi

• 15 Paid Summer Research Programs in Canada

• Paid Summer Programs in Research, Policy, Tech, etc.

Made with 💝 & 🍵 by Sachi

Invite Health’s Impact 💌