MSc student story: Gabby Brogan

Inspired by resilience

Gabby Brogan completed her undergraduate at the Pennsylvania State University but after three years in consulting, decided to undertake the MSc in Security and Resilience: Science and Technology. 

I studied International Politics at Penn State and as part of my degree, also studied in Spain and lived in Dublin. One of the aspects that particularly piqued my interest during my undergraduate was international security. 

After graduating, I accepted a consulting role at PwC where I supported clients in utilising technology to solve problems affecting day-to-day business activities.  

Within this role I was exposed to business continuity management and also completed a Disaster Recovery Institute International qualification. After that, I started researching postgraduate courses related to resilience and decided to apply to the MSc Security and Resilience at Imperial. 

I’ve learnt a tonne so far, one of the most eye opening being the extent to which our critical infrastructure systems are interconnected and affect each other. This really highlights the importance of having a ‘big picture’ view when developing resilient strategies and policies, and an approach we develop during this course through the breadth of topics covered. 

It’s brilliant being part of such a diverse cohort and I’m thoroughly enjoying learning from my peers. There is such a huge range of backgrounds and expertise just amongst our group of 60! We’re also lucky to have access to subject matter experts who we can speak to, and some of the world’s most influential institutions on our doorstep. I love that there are plenty of networking opportunities through our professors too. 

I’d definitely encourage anyone thinking of applying to the MSc to come with an open mind. Once you’re here you’ll learn about so many aspects of security and resilience that you probably won’t know about already; so, don’t close yourself off to the many other options available to you.