From burnt out science student to multimedia designer for mental health: How Sunny alchemized pain into purpose

Message from Sachi

Happy March! This is my favourite month of the year.

Thank you to UofT USRA for featuring Invite Health in your recent Substack newsletter. It made my week. And if you’ve joined Invite Health from that Substack, welcome! Glad to have you here.

As my second last term at Oxford comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on how appreciative I am for all the new experiences this chapter has brought me. I’m also excited for the new term ahead - I just joined the Oxford Global Health Society as their Events & Social Engagements Coordinator, and will be sharing more updates soon! (As you can tell, I love community-building, both here & irl).

This week, I invited one of my friends, Sunny, to share her story. Sunny & I have been friends for a while now, with friendship roots doing photography together in undergrad. We then have been friends who have shared navigating MCAT summers, supporting the start of each other’s side quests, and finally thriving in our post-grad life + careers.

What you’ll learn from Sunny:

• How she built herself a sustainable career in knowledge mobilization, combining her artistic gifts with her healthcare background & lived experiences

• Navigating post-grad uncertainty, with the value of gap year(s) and recovering from undergrad burnout

• Sunny’s various work experiences spanning patient engagement, mental health, freelancing, and more

Enjoy today’s read,

Sachi 💌 

From burnt out science student to multimedia designer for mental health: How Sunny alchemized pain into purpose - Interview with Sunny Yimeng Dong

First off, tell us about your journey so far. Where are you at in your journey, what inspired you to pursue this, and what’s next?

Hello curious readers of Invite Health! My name is Sunny Yimeng Dong (she/her). I’m a mental health advocate, multimedia designer, a SickKids-certified knowledge mobilization specialist, a McMaster Bachelor of Health Science grad, and a perpetual student of life. It’s an absolute honor to share my journey with you, and thank you Sachi for connecting us. 

Where do I even begin? 

Context: I was a stereotypical “keener” at McMaster —overly committed and juggling multiple roles: CanChild research assistant (paid), Anatomy & Physiology teaching assistant (paid) and a bunch of extracurriculars (including photography, which is how Sachi and I connected). Although multimedia design was not part of these job descriptions, I offered it because it was second nature. I’d been cultivating design skills since childhood, whether it was drawing with a box of colour pastels, playing with Photoshop, coding aesthetic Tumblr blogs in 2013 to capturing the streets of Toronto in high school. 

Over time, my supervisors, colleagues and students recognized I had a knack for knowledge mobilization (or knowledge translation), which led to more and more opportunities. See Figures 1-3 below for examples.

“Clearly your knowledge translation skills are amazing, and my impression is that this is where your passion is”, my research supervisor Dr. Jan Willem Gorter wrote in my evaluations. Yet, I never imagined it could be a career. I was in a BHSc bubble, believing that medicine is the default path.

But after burning out, applying to medical school half-heartedly, facing rejections (divine redirection*), burning out again (this time it was depression), soul searching and sidequesting –I eventually honoured that calling towards knowledge mobilization with multimedia design. Several post-grad experiences solidified this decision, which I’ll expand on later in this article. (Spoilers: It was not a straightforward path).

Now, I’m what they call a knowledge broker for mental health, someone who gets research evidence out of academic journals/conferences and into the hands of patients, clinicians and policymakers. It truly is an intuitive integration of my health science education, lived mental health experiences and artistic gifts from childhood. To paraphrase Carl Jung, the path to adult development is to rediscover the child you left behind. And that, my friends, is what it feels like to start Mobilize Mental Health. 

Looking towards the future, I’m curious to explore new ways to level up my science communication and design skills. Could design school be my next sidequest? We’ll see.

Can you tell us a bit about some of your post-grad experiences? Please include your roles, if they were paid/unpaid, how you got the opportunities, etc.

Sure! I’ll share my post-grad experiences in chronological-ish order. My intention is to highlight how jobs can serendipitously come your way when you stay curious and offer your gifts. I’ll keep each story brief, and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.

• Research Assistant and Social Media Content Creator with CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research (Paid): I became a research assistant in my second year of undergrad via the work study program at McMaster. Over the next 4 years (2019-2023), I became known as the “KT (knowledge translation) person” because I kept offering to design infographics, videos, websites and more. After finishing undergrad, I stayed one more year as their “social media person” and finally published my undergraduate thesis on Youth Engagement in Research. Thank you CanChild for being my professional training ground for knowledge mobilization! 

• Community of Practice Lead at MAPS Canada (Unpaid): A curious google search in May 2022 led me to join MAPS Canada, a volunteer-based non-profit that advocates for legal and safe access to psychedelic therapy. We noticed an opportunity to create an online community of practice for stakeholders of Health Canada’s new special access program. So alongside the mentorship of a senior knowledge broker, I designed the community platform and made recruitment materials. In one year, we had over 100 pan-Canadian members, facilitated 7 national meetings and co-created a tipsheet (more like a toolkit). This experience emphasized to me how knowledge mobilization is best done with community.

• Knowledge Broker (contractor) at Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (Paid): The senior knowledge broker I met at MAPS Canada offered me a position at her day job. She was impressed by how I led the community of practice and wanted me to do the same for CCSA. I cannot express my gratitude enough, as this role was my introduction to the world of freelancing —proposals, contracts, and invoices. It’s what gave me the confidence to start my freelance service, Mobilize Mental Health!

• Lived Experience Advisor and Designer at POPCORN (Pediatric Outcome imProvement through COordination of Research Networks) (Paid): I discovered their Indirect Consequences Study through the Youth Engagement in Research Instagram page (created by my CanChild research colleague). The study was investigating why certain mental health hospitalizations spiked during COVID-19 restrictions, which resonated with my own pandemic experience. After participating, I was invited to stay on as a youth advisor. Being able to share my lived experiences to guide research was cathartic and healing for me. It was a way to alchemize grief into gold. When the study was published and ripe for knowledge mobilization, I naturally offered to help design the infographics. It was my first contract as Mobilize Mental Health. Recently, I found out that one of my designs reached the Ministry of Health and Mental Health (see Figure 5)…🤯

• Research Assistant and Lived Experience Advisor, University of Lethbridge (Paid): Inspired by POPCORN, I wondered if I could contribute my lived experiences toward ADHD research. A Google search for “ADHD patient engagement research” led me to this recruitment ad—an opportunity to co-design an innovative clinical trial on ADHD nutrition. As a nutrition nerd, I had to reach out. What was meant to be an advisory role every 2–3 months turned into something more. They happened to be looking for a part-time research assistant, and after mentioning my experience in patient engagement and health research, the PI offered me the position. A year later, we conducted a preliminary rapid review on nutrient supplements for ADHD children, and defined our clinical trial’s vision:

A lot of your work centres around knowledge mobilisation and translation.

Can you explain what knowledge mobilisation and knowledge translation are for people who may be learning about this for the first time?

What advice do you have for students (especially high school + undergrads) who want to pursue knowledge mobilisation and knowledge translation, especially if they don’t have any experience yet? 

I first heard the term knowledge translation (KT) at CanChild, and it’s not about translating knowledge into different languages. To make matters more confusing, researchers use KT to refer to a wide range of products—infographics, videos, toolkits, policy briefs, courses, workshops, websites, social media posts, and the list goes on. 

I’ll share how I’ve come to understand the field. Shout out to the SickKids Knowledge Translation Professional Certificate Program for helping me clarify the essence of KT.

First, note that different organizations and funders might call KT “knowledge mobilization” or “dissemination and implementation science”. Lately, I noticed a greater adoption of the term knowledge mobilization (KM or KMb) by Canadian funding agencies, including Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). Regardless of terminology, the core idea is the same:

“The reciprocal and complementary flow and uptake of research knowledge between researchers, knowledge brokers, and knowledge users in a way that benefits users and creates positive impacts.” (SSHRC’s definition)

In simpler terms, let’s use a cooking analogy:

• Researchers create the “recipe” (the research) on knowledge users’ experiences.

• Knowledge brokers (like Mobilize Mental Health) share that recipe with the people who can use it and ensure they have the right ingredients to follow it (e.g., training, resources, user-friendly formats).

• Knowledge users (like clinicians, patients, or policy-makers) are the ones who actually “cook” with that recipe in real-world settings.

If you’re a divergent thinker who loves science and multimedia, you might be a good fit for knowledge mobilization. Here are some insights on how you can get started (Keep in mind, there is no one roadmap): 

1. Curiously explore resources or courses to level up your skills (see question 5)

2. Offer value by creating knowledge tools for the positions or communities you’re already part of (e.g., research, volunteer, extracurriculars). 

3. Keep track of your work, even if it’s a simple spreadsheet of your designs, presentations, or written pieces. Bonus: Collect testimonials!

4. Share your work! Show people that you can make data beautiful, whether in conversations or email, and patiently notice how doors start to open ✨

What advice and insights do you have for students navigating post-grad life, doing gap years, or not pursuing grad school right after undergrad? 

In April of 2023 (one year post-grad), I left CanChild and MAPS Canada. I had no job, no school lined up, and no clear direction. My parents couldn’t understand why I left a stable job or why I wasn’t reapplying to medical school. But my comfort zone had slowly became my discomfort zone. In my heart, I was yearning to explore. But simultaneously, I was burnt out. I needed deep rest. I was depressed. 

Group fitness classes were the first domino in my healing and soul searching journey. Moving my body gave me momentum, both physically and mentally. As I started to feel better, I began asking: “What’s my next step in life?”. With nothing to lose and inspired by a Mark Twain quote*, I took a scary leap of faith. I began traveling Southeast Asia, volunteered in rural Manitoba via workaway (great budget-friendly way to travel by the way), and attended a 5 day healing retreat (it was intense).

When I came back, I kept following my curiosity—learning hypnotherapy (a mindfulness technique), group fitness coaching, knowledge brokering with CCSA, participating in POPCORN research, joining ADHD nutrition research and everything in between. At first, it felt like I was collecting random sidequests. But looking back, the variety and contrast was part of my self-discovery process —it brought clarity to my purpose. Without what some might call “Sunny’s quarter life crisis”, I don’t think I would’ve had the clarity nor courage to integrate my experiences and fully embrace Mobilize Mental Health.

So if I could share one piece of advice, it’s this: follow your curiosity and explore those side quests, whether you’re doing a gap year or not. Every adventure is a teacher. The variety and contrast between experiences is how you Know Thyself. It’s how you figure out what energizes you, what drains you, what flows with (or against) your natural gifts and what you’re meant to do. You won’t always find these answers by researching online, but you definitely will when you get out into the world and live.

And perhaps through navigating this messy, uncertain yet beautiful and delicious unfolding of life, you might just find gems hidden in the cave of suffering.

Where can students go if they want to learn more about your experiences?

I’d love to connect personally and answer any questions! Feel free to add me on LinkedIn and send me a message. I’m happy to share more about knowledge mobilization, mental health advocacy, or any part of my story that resonates with you.

You can also check out my website: https://mobilizementalhealth.com/

Is there any final advice or resources that you would like to share with Invite Health readers?

Hmm, I’ll leave you with this quote: “I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”— number 1 regret of the dying 

Words to meditate on…

And finally, some resources I recommend:

1. Science Writers Canada’s Resource— List of learning institutions, science communication and freelancing resources.

2. Made to Stick (book) – Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? This book gives many great communication examples, from ads, campaigns to ancient proverbs.

3. The War of Art (book) – What keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do? Why is there a naysayer within?

4. Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address – “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

Thank you for reading to the end ❤️

Sachi, thank you again for creating such a beautiful resource for students. Seriously, I wish Invite Health existed when I was in highschool and undergrad!!

Jobs, Opportunities & Resources 💻️ 

Most of these resources are reposted on Invite Health’s LinkedIn page.

• DTH-Lab’s fellowship programme

• Research Assistant at The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)

• Program Manager, PCHSeq | The Hospital for Sick Children | LinkedIn

• Deloitte Scholarship 2025 | One Young World

• An Occupation Focused Guide to Ramadan by Sara Emira (read her Invite Health interview)

• Engagement Coordinator - Collaborative Learning College - CAMH

• Global Youth Action Fund

• Pathways to a Career in Insurance - IDRF | Paid Internship Program

• Media Manager (12 Month Contract) | AstraZeneca | LinkedIn

• Summer 2025 Research Opportunities: Undergraduate Students | Upstream Lab

• Xplore Program | Longevity Xplorer | Applications now open

• Student Work Placement Program - BioTalent Canada 

• Communications Officer, Institute for Pandemics

• Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator | Sexual Health And genito-Pelvic pain knowledge Empowerment Hub (SHAPE)

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 🫶

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How I Built Invite Health - BTS 🌼 

I’m building a series where I share strategies on how I built Invite Health. In two years, I’ve grown Invite Health organically to 1,500+ subscribers (meaning, I’ve spent $0), building it sustainably as a solo student founder throughout undergrad and my Master’s.

Create a Free Resources Bank

Below this insight, you will always find a Free Links & Resources section. I was inspired to create this section after seeing something similar on Salary Transparent Street’s newsletter. It’s in the template of every newsletter. I share a lot of resources over time, and I believe having this section helps to curate some of the top resources. Especially for new readers who are just learning about Invite Health.

I also do this with my personal portfolio on Notion - I have a dedicated resources section for every resource I’ve created across LinkedIn, Instagram, Invite Health, etc.

Free Links & Resources 🫰 

• Applying to Grad Schools Notion Guide by Sachi

• 15 Paid Summer Research Programs in Canada

• 25 Paid Summer Programs for Life Science & Health Science Students in Canada

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

• Paid Healthcare x Business Opportunities for Students 

• How to Write a Cold Email

• How to Secure Research Funding

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