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At the time of the QE Scholarship and GSO award, Jaclyn was an undergraduate student at Â鶹ÊÓƵ University, pursuing an Honours degree in Arts & Science combined with Political Science. She was a research assistant working at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s ForumLab, where she contributed to the Health Systems Evidence (HSE), Social Systems Evidence (SSE), and COVID-END databases, the latter for which she was a Senior Office Lead. The HSE, SSE, and COVID-END databases empower local and global stakeholders to make research-informed decisions. Jaclyn has been involved in her community from a young age volunteering, collecting supplies, and raising funds and awareness for causes including cancer research and clean water projects. Jaclyn hopes to continue to contribute to her community in new ways through the next chapter of her life.

As a Global Skills Opportunity (GSO) awardee, Jaclyn travelled to work with the Caribbean Centre for Health Systems Research and Development (CCHSRD) in Trinidad and Tobago. She had never traveled to the Caribbean before and was excited to experience Trinidad’s unique culture. Jaclyn looked forward to learning from the CCHSRD team and building new skills and connections.

As an outbound Queen Elizabeth Scholar, Jaclyn employed the skills developed during her GSO award with a return to Trinidad and Tobago to engage in a more fulsome and culturally immersive experience with CCHSRD. During her time abroad Jaclyn supported CCHSRD’s mission of generating and facilitating the use of research evidence in an effort to empower Caribbean countries to strengthen health systems and policy making processes. Jaclyn learned how such processes can be used to enable greater equity in health.