Where are they now? TARGet Kids! Students start Medical School!

In this article, we connect with TARGet Kids! (TK!) Undergraduate Students Swathi and Shurabi Anphalagan, who are now embarking on an exciting new chapter in their academic journey. This September, they begin medical school and Toronto Metropolitan University, reflecting on how their experiences with TK! shaped their path.

Since our time as undergraduate research students with TK!, we have entered a new and fulfilling chapter of our academic journey as medical students at TMU in Brampton. We are thrilled to be among the inaugural cohort in the very community where we were born and raised.

We first joined TK! after completing our first year of undergraduate studies, unsure of where our future might lead but eager to explore our passion for

health and science. We still recall our early conversations with Dr. Maguire, who immediately recognized our enthusiasm and welcomed us into TK! with warmth and encouragement, assuring us it would be a place to learn, grow, and discover our potential.

Looking back, we know our path to medical school would not have been possible without the invaluable experiences and mentorship gained at TK!. The opportunity to collaborate with an interdisciplinary team, including fellow research assistants, communications staff, and dieticians were vital in shaping our skills and aspirations.

Among the many memories at TK!, one of the most meaningful experiences was writing and illustrating a storybook for children in the clinic. This creative project introduced young participants in clinics to the recruitment process, such as height measurements and blood work in an engaging narrative and visuals. TK! helped us find ways to integrate our creative skills with research, by making our clinical spaces more welcoming for our participants. We also had the privilege to collaborate with other members of our team including the PACT and TK! participants, who shared their feedback in helping us tailor the book to their experiences. This experience was transformative, allowing us to merge creativity with research, practice knowledge translation, and foster meaningful engagement with children and families.

In addition to this initiative, we contributed to systematic reviews, developed research booklets, created animations, and supported the evaluation of PACT priorities. If you have come across any of our team’s animations in infographics or research materials, those were created by us! Together, we also evaluated the incredible research publications produced by TK! to assess how well they align with the priorities set by PACT. Through this project, we summarized findings for each priority, highlighting both our team’s efforts to address key questions in child health and the opportunities for future work. Shurabi additionally supported a systematic review exploring the relationship between centre-based childcare and later adiposity in children, which is now in its final stages of publication. More recently, we contributed to data cataloguing by entering information from our inventory of paper questionnaires, making them more accessible to our team. Each of these experiences has strengthened our skills in collaboration, communication, and the value of interdisciplinary work.

These principles have supported our academic journeys and are the foundation for our journey as future medical students. We are eager to carry forward these experiences as we grow into well-rounded future healthcare professionals, grounded in values of creativity, teamwork, and knowledge-sharing.