Nutrition alumna My Sjunnestrand is inspired by research

Tell us your story!

I have always had an interest in how food impacts our health, and I had determined at an early stage of my education that I wanted to study nutrition. When I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition (a joint 3 year programme with Stockholm University, given in Swedish) in 2017, I was offered a position as a research assistant at KI. Research opened a whole new world for me and I was so excited to be a part of it. The year that ensued was fun, also challenging at times, and very educational. Encouraged by my new experience, I decided to continue my education in KI's Master’s in Nutrition Science programme.

My position as a research assistant got me truly interested in research. Since I already had a Bachelor’s in Nutrition from KI, I knew that the educational quality there are very high. Therefore, KI was a given choice when I decided to apply for my Master’s. I do not regret the choice at all. What I liked most about studying at KI was the diversity among all the students in our class. We were 30 students from 20 different countries which gave us a unique opportunity to network and share experiences from several countries all over the world.

During the second semester of the Master's programme, I was offered a part-time position as a research assistant at KI, to continue working on the same project as my degree project. After graduation, my employment was prolonged for another 9 months. Since it was only a part-time position, I applied for another part-time job at the Center for Epidemiology and Community medicine. When my employment at KI ended, I started working full time at CES.

My position was Administrative Official at Center for Epidemiology and Community medicine, (Centrum för epidemiologi och samhällsmedicin, CES), which is a center working with public health issues within the Stockholm County council. I work with different projects at the unit for implementation and evaluation.

I was working with a scoping review that aims to assess the implementation and effects of school-based models to support children with mental health illness. My role was to read and extract relevant data from the included articles. Although it does not fully connect to nutrition, it was a valuable experience which I hoped would benefit my future career.

My studies at KI were literally essential for my future career. Doing my degree project in a research group was a decisive reason for the opportunities I received. Once I gathered valuable experiences and made important contacts, it became much easier to get another job. While I have yet not decided what I want to work with in the future, I know it will definitely be related to nutrition in one way or another.

What is your advice for students

Take every opportunity you get to meet people. Be ambitious and stay positive!