HS Medical Society

As grade twelve begins, Medical Society has become a place not only where I can participate in various medicine related activities but also a space and time which I can use to work towards my medicine applications for college/universities programmes – which have been quite challenging. One such challenge has been writing my personal statement for my UK applications. With only 4000 characters to fill, I was quite confused with how to communicate why I wanted to study medicine and show that I was suitable.

What actions did I take to overcome these challenges? I decided to do some research and ended up collating advice from the UAC’s sessions (at UWCSEA), universities’ own guides and youtube videos (from medical students). I then made a plan of the different areas I needed to focus on in my personal statement (for instance: interest, school, shadowing, etc.) I then brainstormed my ideas on a document and picked the strongest points I had come up with and interweaved them together. The last step was simply making the entire statement more concise (as to fit in the character count) and edit according to the advice I received from my own UAC advisor.

Throughout this process of writing my personal statement, I’ve really developed some of my skills when it comes to approaching such writing assignments in the future. One of the most important skill I learnt was following certain steps: researching, planning and then simply attempt to start (with whatever I may come up with), instead of wasting time stressing out about the task.

Upon reflection, working towards these applications have affected my commitment in Medical Society related activities to an extent which meant I was not participating as much as I could have been doing. Perhaps, I can help others in the activity by sharing the valuable resources that I ended up using for my personal statement and advice in case they face the same challenges that I did. One way to do this might be to collaborate with my friend who has taken up a leadership position in Medical Society. We could organize a session on personal statements and prepare a resource for future students that compiles advice and other useful links.

Unfortunately, ever since online learning (due to the COVID19 situation), we have not been able to hold medical society on Monday’s. Whilst this was initially quite sad, I decided to consider valid alternatives to what I could achieve outside of the club. I decided this was a good opportunity to grow a habit of reading some news, or research on medical journals/websites every week. It is difficult to consistently put in time, with this term being one of the busiest that there have been. Usually, when it comes to an area like Medicine, which I’m so passionate and interested in, it does seem like a sacrifice to dedicate time to it. However, I’ve been feeling very anxious, stressed and tired during this time, and hence I’ve been trying push myself.  For example, I also teamed up with a friend from Medical Society and the both of us shared resources with one another on “*virtual shadowing ” (which the Medical Schools Council recommended) and dedicated some time outside of lessons to have a chat about what we were reading on the news about different countries’s approach to the pandemic.Overall, despite not being able to have medical society, I think that I’ve learnt that is still other possible methods to be as actively engaged and involved (but this requires a lot of discipline to maintain).

*The Royal College of General Practitioners have created an interactive platform called Observe GP which highest the many different aspects of working in primary care.

The Medical Society at school currently is being chaired by a group of great twelth graders. However, with the graduation approaching soon for the class of 2020, it’s time for new leadership. Having been a part of the Medical Society since grade nine, I felt that it would be a great opportunity for me to step up and assume the role of one of the chairs.

The International Baccalaureate is one of the world’s most challenging programmes. Before signing up and auditioning for the role of a leader in any activity, I always consider how much time I am able to dedicate and what value I can bring to the activity or service. However, with the Medical Society, it was an instant decision. Everyone who wanted to attempt to become chair, was instructed to write an anonymous paragraph explaining why others should vote for them. I thought that this exercise would also be a great idea for me to reflect on why I wanted to be chair. Below I wrote a paragraph that would be presented to the rest of the members, so that they could get to know me a little bit better and understand my vision for the club.

My Paragraph:

Growing up, the complexities of the human body constantly spurred my curiosity. As I progressed further into my education, my interest only grew. Getting involved with services like SunDac and ApexHarmony (working with mentally disabled and dementia patients), nurtured my passion for service to mankind.

Choosing to pursue medicine became a no brainer. I found the Medical Society during my IGCSE years. Prior to joining, I had been part of various activities related to science, but none intrigued me as much as Medical Society. Whether it was the thought provoking MMI questions, the gory videos of surgeries, the exciting games or sessions filled with nerve-wrecking advice about (how hard it is) getting into medical school, I found a community that shared my love for medicine. As a chair, I want to continue the traditions we’re all fond of, and create new ones.

Getting into medical school can seem daunting – especially when you are expected to know so much about things you don’t necessarily learn about in school: keeping up to date with new research, or deeper insight about public health systems of countries around the world. Perhaps you’re looking for shadowing opportunities? Or maybe you’re still uncertain about wanting to pursue medicine. I hope to create a space where you can acquire more indispensable knowledge, where your questions can be answered, and most importantly – where you can have fun. I hope to explore hands-on practicals, (looking more in depth at) tests like the UKAT, BMAT and MMI’s.

Furthermore, as a perfectionist, organization is one of my strengths. Using my skill, I hope to take into account all of your inputs on what you want to do in Medical Society each week. Don’t want to read long, soul-sucking, research papers / articles? We can watch new, thrilling and engaging documentaries like ‘Diagnosis’. It’s your choice. Because, ultimately each and every one of you add to who we are and what we hope achieve over here.

This year during the first two seasons of Medical Society, I found myself contributing a lot more towards the planning behind what we were doing during our sessions. A topic I thought that we had never broached was public health systems. No matter where we were going to be applying to medical school in the world – each and every one of us was going to have garner knowledge about the respective health systems of the countries where we wanted to study. This could be especially helpful during interviews for universities/colleges or when deciding which country we would want to practice in for the future.

We had not done anything new in some time, so I decided to approach the student leaders. I brought up the idea to the current chairs of the medical society, and listened respectfully to my proposal and were more than happy to comply. Together we brainstormed what the plan could look like. Eventually, we ended up conducting a whole session on this topic. The slideshow that was presented is linked below. We organised an activity in which we split up everyone into teams. Each team was assigned a different country, and had to research about that country’s public health systems: history, fun facts, etc. Then each group had the opportunity to present information they had researched to the rest of the group.

Whilst, we didn’t all become experts on the different public health systems, it was a great introduction to the basics. The activity was a gateway that encouraged each of us to further explore the health systems of countries that were specifically relevant to each of us. The session was a success, and I hope that we can conduct similar activities in the future.

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Growing up, the complexities of the human body spurred much curiosity in me. As I progressed further into my education, my interest in biology only grew, as did my passion for service to mankind. From the various topics we learnt in the classroom, Nutrition, Transport, Inheritance, the Nervous System, Respiration and Gas Exchange particularly stood out to me. Simply put, I was enchanted by the simple yet intricate ways in which the human body functioned. For example, how the hair on our body stands up in response to a change in temperature, or even how the various enzymes play a major role in breaking down the food we consume to aid digestion.

Knowing for sure which career to pursue as a student can be tricky. However, I’ve always known that I wanted to take up a profession that I had a passion for and that would allow to me to help people. Cliche as it may sound, I believe as Buddha once said, “Health is the greatest gift.” If we can help people all around the world to enhance their quality of life by better managing their health, they can reach their full potential. Till this day, we still haven’t managed to find the cure to many diseases and illnesses. Nonetheless, as a doctor or surgeon, I would like to believe it is still possible to feel a sense of satisfaction from day to day as you continue to provide your patients with the confidence to live a healthier, better life.

Medicine is an area that is constantly progressing and evolving with the contribution of new technologies and innovations. There are so many different specialties and subspecialties available to engage in today, and they continue to increase as new questions are raised. I would like to increase my knowledge base in this area through opportunities such as keeping up with new research, interacting with other like-minded individuals, shadowing doctors, etc.

Whilst academic concepts fuelled my interest in the field of medicine, in order to truly explore what this vast field had to offer, and to find my own niche, I decided to expand my personal classroom to UWCSEA’s HS Medical Society. My current goals are:

-To garner the breadth required to understand the various areas of medicine, that will then aid my long-term goal of identifying a niche that I would like to pursue as a potential doctor myself.

-To keep up with new research in the field.

-To learn more about public health systems around the world.

-To interact with others also interested in this field in hope to learn from them and their experiences.

-To learn more about the requirements for applying and getting into medical schools.