My name is Charlotte MacMahon, I am currently in year twelve at Bedford Girls’ School and I hope to study Veterinary at university. I have been part of the Medic Mentor Leadership Programme for almost a year and I have found it very beneficial so far due to the wide variety of opportunities offered.
I first became involved with Medic Mentor when I attended the National Healthcare Weekend in September. At this time I was not sure on which career path I wanted to follow between Medicine, Veterinary and Law. However, after attending this conference I was confident that I wanted to do something medically related because I found it so inspiring and I realised that I was more similar to people wanting to become medics rather than lawyers. I was also given very good advice to obtain work experience in each field to see which I preferred. Therefore, I arranged work experience at my local hospital for October and at a veterinary practice for February: I have now decided on veterinary.
In February this year I was given the opportunity to attend a Medic Mentor conference on leadership qualities, presentation skills and medical ethics. I found this really useful as we were able to work in a group alongside a doctor to research and plan a presentation on an aspect of medical ethics, which allowed me to work on my teamwork skills. After that, we presented to a large audience, including medics, and received feedback on how to refine our skills; this really helped me to become more confident and for me it was a very valuable experience. In addition, listening to the other presentations was interesting because I learnt new things about medical ethics in more detail. I also found this day very worthwhile as we could gain an insight to life as a medic as we were able to ask a range of medical professionals any questions that we had, as well as networking with many like minded students.
Moreover, I was also given the chance to write an article with my friends on depression in doctors. The help from Medic Mentor with this has been instrumental as they give us comments to improve on and has helped us to become better writers and independent researchers. I think that this is a very good opportunity as having a published article will help me to stand out when applying to university. As an ambassador, I have inspired others in my school to write articles too; previously we were unaware of this possibility. The other ambassadors and I from my school have set up a group chat for the medics in my year so that we can share any useful resources and opportunities with each other. This has been very beneficial for discovering things such as essay competitions which we were otherwise unaware of.
Furthermore, in quarantine due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, Medic Mentor have been running a virtual medical society which we have also managed to implement in our school. This is wonderful as it enables us to have discussions regularly about the current situation and preparing for applying to university.
Recently I took part in a problem based learning question for veterinary about serengeti lions which we were able to explore with a vet. This pushed me out of my comfort zone to ask and answer questions and helped to boost my confidence for interviews.
Aside from my work with Medic Mentor, I enjoy dance and speech and drama, along with completing science research projects. Included are photos of me in my school’s dance concert in March 2019, my friend and I having won 1st place in Bedfordshire Festival of Speech and Drama for a prepared reading duet in March 2019, and my friends and I with our bronze Crest Awards in 2017.
To conclude, I am so glad that I had this opportunity and I am looking forward to the summer school where I hope to make friends with other future medics as well as learning more about veterinary and applying to university. I think that the interview practise will be invaluable, especially to have our own mentor to guide us through our applications and to help with our personal statements. I would highly recommend Medic Mentor to anyone considering a career in medicine, veterinary or dentistry due to the support and opportunities available.
Written By Charlotte MacMahon