"When I won the GLEPHA Award, it actually meant something. Someone internationally read my paper and thought I was deserving, that I've actually made a real difference."
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Coming up with a research topic during the business end of a degree is never the easiest moment for a uni student. You want to find one that's unique while also holding enough personal interest that you'll want to spend several months working on it.
For Bachelor of International Public Health student, Bhavna Singh, there actually wasn't that much agonising or stressing about her big research topic. The final paper is titled Trauma-Informed Comprehensive Sexuality Education for Justice-Involved Youth: Components, Strategies, and Policy Implications and she had a pretty clear idea of what she wanted to do from the beginning.
"What drew me to public health was the scale of its impact. While clinical medicine treats individuals, public health can improve outcomes for entire populations," Bhavna explains. "So you prevent harm before it occurs. I found it really interesting, [as well as] the intersection of public health and law."
For the actual topic itself, Bhavna found that while she had landed in the sweet spot of what she wanted to do, there was surprisingly little published work featuring both topics. To her, it seemed like as good a sign as any to pursue it as her research topic.
"I couldn't find any literature that tried to bring both [topics] together," she recalls. "There were other people doing research within juvenile settings, prisons and incarceration, [but this] was a niche topic that wasn't really explored.
"My supervisor was interested in trauma-informed education and comprehensive sexual education. I lined those two up and found a gap that wasn't really researched."
"I was ambitious because I knew I wanted to do research. I didn't want to do work integrated learning or an internship. As soon as [my supervisor] pitched it on the first day, that is exactly what I want to do.
"I wanted to taste what research was like and whether that was something I would like to do. I do like writing and you can make an impact with your [writing]."
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Once Bhavna identified the research gap, the next step was to zero in on an angle, which came along pretty smoothly as she recalls her project's origin story.
"One of the key ideas was how interventions focus heavily on changing individual behaviour, but they don't fully account for factors like trauma or the surrounding environment," she explains. "I was interested in how we can design more effective evidence-based approaches that take those broader factors into account."
Digging deeper into her project, Bhavna explains that juvenile offenders are "not given the age-appropriate education on how to deal with other people in society," which in turn goes back to the question of nurturing the correct values and morals during young people's developmental phases.
"I was shocked when I received the email that I was the winner! I rushed over to my parents and showed them the email.
"When I won the GLEPHA Award, it actually meant something. Someone internationally read my paper and thought I was deserving, that I've actually made a real difference."
Summing up the main throughline, Bhavna says: "We've got to understand that juveniles shouldn't be in jail in the first place at that young age. The second step is [to understand] what they have done to serve time. While they're doing their time, how do we stop them from reoffending?
"If you only give them one level of care or one level of education, you miss out on the opposite side. The literature shows that they come back later in their adult years and do the opposite of what they were taught."
Having put so much time and effort into her research paper, Bhavna decided to submit her work for a Global Law Enforcement & Public Health Association (GLEPHA) Student Award. There were two reasons why she submitted her paper. Firstly, why not? Secondly, she says that GLEHPA was "an organisation that merges both public health and law," which made it a no-brainer.
"I was like, 'I'm going to try my luck' [and apply] for the award," she recalls. "I worked hard for it and students will see your research. You can take it into the real world, have it applied and if it [helps address] these real-world challenges, it benefits everyone."
When it was announced that Bhavna was the recipient of the 2025 GLEPHA Undergraduate Student Paper Award, it came as a massive surprise.
"I was shocked when I received the email that I was the winner!" she laughs. "I rushed over to my parents and showed them the email, so it was a family moment together. They're going to invite me to a conference in September in the UK at Leeds. That's where I'll get the award in person."
Bhavna says not only was the recognition of her work gratifying, but it was an indication that she's one step closer to solving a public health issue that she cares deeply about.
"When I won the GLEPHA Award, it actually meant something. Someone internationally read my paper and thought I was deserving, that I've actually made a real difference," she says.
"It's brought closer to one public health issue, and [I can] say we solved it in a way. But to get something like tangible after spending all your time and your energy into it, it's a nice rewarding feeling!"
Having graduated from UNSW in March 2026, Bhavna's post-uni journey is kicking off amazingly with none other than GLEPHA.
"I've got a six-month internship with GLEPHA for the Fiji HIV crisis, so I'm working with them on policing and research work," she says. "I'm Indo-Fijian and so are my parents, so to have a connection back to Fiji makes [the internship] more rewarding."
As one of the last students to go through the Bachelor of International Public Health program before it was cut, the pathway Bhavna took is no longer available. But that doesn't mean it isn't possible to do what one loves, whether it's in public health, law or something else.
"Take opportunities or explore topics that genuinely interest you, it really does make a big difference," says Bhavna.
"I was really interested in law and medicine from a young age, but I didn't meet the ATAR requirements to get into law or a Bachelor of Medicine. But I wanted to help people and public health came up, so I went for it. If you take the risk, you don't know where it's going to land you, but what's meant to find you will always get to you."
All interview quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
Last edited on 10 July 2026
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