I’m currently a 1st Year Medical student studying at the University of Sheffield. Sheffield was the university I aspired to attend as early as year 12 because when I went to their open day, the students who took me around were very relaxed and not stressed out about their course at all. This went against what most people’s vision about Med Students, which are “supposed” to be stressed out and always thinking about studying. These medical students described the sports and society opportunities available at Sheffield, which has the best Students Union in the Country. I am big on extra-curricular activities so this was what attracted me most to Sheffield.

My motivation to study Medicine comes from a mix of what profession could my personality and skills I already own would be most pertinent and also a desire to make a positive impact on people. I’m an outgoing person, who likes to keep my mind focused and medicine allows me to do that. The part which I enjoy the most about studying medicine is the future vision of being a doctor which helps me get through the hours of work and gargantuan amount of content to learn. The fact that I can be armed with so much knowledge about the human body and what can go wrong with it is also a boost, because not many people get to do it.

At the moment I do not know which speciality I want to pursue, as I am still at the beginning of my medical school career, which is not a bad thing. Keeping doors open allows you to research all areas of speciality and so I can make a much more informed decision in the future by not rushing decisions now.

I was a Medic Mentor Scholar, who attended the summer school and was put forward to become a scholar after I got into medical school. I have currently only helped run a national healthcare weekend in Birmingham which was a great experience as it gave me a chance to look at things from the scholar’s viewpoint. It also allowed to me to improve on communication skills as I spoke to many aspiring medics and helped them plan for their future in medicine.

For my future with Medic Mentor I would like to focus on working with my secondary school and the other grammar schools around it to give sixth formers more confidence in pursuing medicine as a career.

What I like most about the scholarship programme is that it allows to hone in and perfect skills which will be crucial for my aspirations in medicine.

One such example is that I did a course with Medic Mentor on public speaking, where for hours we practised and I was given lots of helpful guidance and tips from the head co-ordinator, Iain.