Senara Kulatunga

Senara is currently completing her Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of New South Wales. Senara initially started working with the National Institute of Education in 2017 where she was assisting senior Interview workshop trainers in the facilitation of events in Adelaide. During this time she was also studying for the Bachelor of Health Sciences degree at the University of Adelaide, which made her a great asset to NIE as she was able to mentor young students about the foundations of a medical degree and university life as a whole.

After her first year at the University of Adelaide, she completed the year with the highest level GPA score of 7 and UMAT (now UCAT) score of 96. In her UMAT she especially excelled in the non-verbal reasoning section (similar to the current Abstract Reasoning) and the understanding people section (somewhat similar to the current SjT). She received interview offers in multiple states and has completed both panel interviews and MMIs in this process. In more recent years, she underwent intensive advanced interview coaching training with NIE, and together with her own past experiences, she has proven to be a highly proficient trainer, coach, mentor, and an invaluable member of the NIE team.

Senara’s involvement in medicine stretches beyond her studies where she has undertaken work in GP practice and is also a John Flynn Placement Program scholar which has enabled her to shadow a rural medical practitioner, learning about the provision and delivery of clinical health care to rural communities.