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The Medi Council<br />
Dr Rebecca Yates<br />
Director of education and leader of the medi<br />
council<br />
I don’t want to sound mushy but being part of Medic Mentor<br />
is really awesome. Being able to use your own experience<br />
of applying to medical school to help others in their applications<br />
is incredibly rewarding. Medic Mentor provides the opportunity<br />
to design and create resources distributed to prospective and current<br />
medical students; the company really goes above and beyond.<br />
“No” isn’t a word that is used very often and I love that.<br />
I’ve been involved with Medic Mentor for just over a year, initially<br />
as a scholar working with school societies and then as a Fellow.<br />
Now in my role as Director of Education I will be working alongside<br />
the Medi Council to support our team of talented scholars<br />
and mentors.<br />
I’m hoping that we will complete some incredible projects that will<br />
benefit many current and prospective medical students. I’m also<br />
excited for our first ever national mentors conference, Mastering<br />
Medical School, designed to give our mentors all the info they<br />
need to make the most out of their time at university.<br />
I decided I wanted to become a doctor around the age of 14 however, despite my best efforts, I didn’t<br />
get any interviews when I first applied. Not wanting to accept defeat, I decided to study for an<br />
undergraduate degree and apply to medical school as a graduate. I read molecular medicine<br />
at the University of Sussex and had a fantastic time, but I was still determined to go into medicine.<br />
I applied to four graduate entry medicine programmes, was lucky enough to be offered places on three,<br />
and decided to study at Keele University. I graduated in July 2016 and I’m now working as an FY1.<br />
Dr Claire Gillon<br />
Lister Hospital - aspiring surgeon<br />
My first degree was in anatomical sciences at the University of Manchester which also involved<br />
studying Japanese. After this I opted to do an undergraduate medicine course in Manchester so that<br />
I could do the European Studies Programme - this enabled me to complete a 16 week elective in Berlin<br />
in 2016 before graduating. I found doing a degree beforehand to be incredibly useful; I had developed<br />
graduate skills whilst gaining a broader knowledge base in the biological sciences.<br />
I have practised tai chi for over ten years and am a qualified instructor; at university I set<br />
up and ran a society for tai chi. I particularly love travelling, and went to Japan in the summer and even<br />
more recently to New York. I can frequently be found reading and watching movies, although asking<br />
which are my favourites is an impossible question.<br />
I first got involved in mentoring when I started 6th form, mentoring younger pupils who, for whatever<br />
reason, were struggling at school. From there I developed my teaching skills whenever the opportunity<br />
arose - usually on an informal basis. During my medical degree I was involved in the Scalpel society<br />
which aims to further the knowledge and experience of those interested in surgery. My role primarily<br />
was organising and running weekly lectures but I also helped teach at various day courses and supported<br />
the running of the annual conference.<br />
Make the most of the wide array of opportunities available to you: get involved in societies, especially<br />
non-medical ones and build up a variety of non-medical interests and activities. In doing so you will<br />
improve your transferable skills and at times they can help you to stay grounded. Remember, there<br />
isn’t just one way to do medicine.<br />
Dr Husay Janebdar<br />
Ipswich Hospital - Core surgical trainee<br />
My journey of getting into medical school was one of the classic straightforward ones (boring I<br />
know!). I had straight As and A*s at school and college, gained work experience at a variety of different<br />
places, a few other extra curricular activities and achievements … and then just took my passion<br />
for medicine to the interview! It worked.<br />
Being part of the Medi Council I look forward to mentoring the Medic Mentor Scholars, I am particularly<br />
excited about organising the Mastering Medical School conference this year and generally<br />
being part of an enterprise and group of like-minded intellectuals who feel passionate about teaching,<br />
mentoring and widening access to medicine.<br />
I love the concepts and values of Medic Mentor. I love that with us, anybody from any background<br />
with a slight passion or interest in medicine can have all the support, information and access<br />
to opportunities they need to nurture and blossom.<br />
My advice to current medical students? Enjoy the journey, and make the most of every Christmas and<br />
New Year you have off as it won’t always be the case once you start working.<br />
Dr Sarah Bassiony<br />
William Harvey Hospital - aspiring surgeon<br />
Throughout medical school I have had multiple mentees and had the opportunity to help them develop<br />
and see them blossom to the doctors they have now become. As an FY1 I was the teaching lead for<br />
final year medical students and arranged a year-long teaching programme which combined a mixture<br />
of lecture-based and bedside teaching.<br />
Simulation is being increasingly used to train doctors and I love it. I have always thought it was a<br />
brilliant way to learn. Since FY1 I have been part of the faculty team in organising simulation session<br />
for medical emergencies using SimMan and helping them reflect on their performance. I realised that<br />
a lot of the students were worried about their first on calls, so this year I launched “HotlineBleep” (if<br />
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