Hi everyone, I’m Ellie and I am over the moon to announce myself as the new President of Medic Mentor’s Virtual Medical Society. As an aspiring medic, I have just begun studying for my A Levels in Biology, Chemistry and Maths at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College down on the South Coast of England.

My VMS committee journey began back in May 2020 as an Education Officer where I worked alongside the most incredible team of like-minded young people to provide quality content for our members. We faced challenges, hurdles, moments of pride and moments of complete panic (the latter more often than you would expect!) but what brought us through the other end was the way we all held each other’s back through thick and thin. It was crazy to think how I could work and succeed with people over 500 miles away from me. As the newly elected President, I want to be able to guide the new committee through the (potentially overwhelming!) process of running an ever-growing, national medical society so that, not only can we continue to provide resources for your journey to university, but we can do this whilst feeling supported and caring for ourselves and each other at the same time.

I have grown up with dogs and numerous other furry friends so alongside my interests in human medicine, I am also fascinated by animals and their quirks. It would be amazing if as a committee we could explore how our veterinary content could be adapted and improved – we have some ideas but please, if you are an aspiring vet, let me know in the comments what you would like to see.

In the future, I am keen to train as a paediatric surgeon – I volunteer with children suffering from cerebral palsy and love seeing them achieve things they never thought were possible. It really is beautiful to be a part of something like that.

And so, that brings me in a round circle really; helping something to achieve what could never have been imagined – the VMS in a nutshell. 

It’s been a journey – one that I am so excited and honoured to keep travelling on. 

I hope I can do Medic Mentor proud.

Hello everyone! My name is Arnav Rustogi, and I am a Year 12 student at Upton Court Grammar School. I am an aspiring Medic and currently hold the position of Vice President in the Virtual Medical Society, looking forward to helping you guys in your journey to becoming future healthcare professionals. 

Being a Doctor was not something that clicked within me since my early childhood. For years, my career interests had been fluctuating continuously, whether it be a linguist, lawyer or historian, amidst several other fascinations. However, it was not until I attended a Get into Medicine Conference earlier this year that I felt ever so inspired and determined to fixate myself on medicine. Since then, I have participated in the Awards Programme and have enrolled for the 2021 Summer School, also being an ambassador in the Medical Leadership Programme, the latter having helped me to gain a more principled and open-minded view on the profession. Despite an unsuccessful application for membership in the first committee, I was extremely intent on trying again for the second one, spending more time on my application and making sure to reflect on my experiences, ultimately enabling me to earn my current position.

As Vice President, I am responsible for the management and coordination of the VMS alongside Poppy, the second Vice President. I aim to work collaboratively with my team to provide you with the best experience and opportunities we can. I also wish to further ameliorate my understanding of this career path, to develop key skills with this role, and to actively contribute towards future sessions and events to ensure that we all can share ideas and achieve our goals. Coming to my hobbies, I am a classical music fanatic and love to learn new languages (fun fact – I can additionally communicate in Hindi, Japanese, French and Urdu!). I enjoy playing the piano and reading about Indian, Greek and Japanese mythology; I also take pleasure in skating and playing badminton.  

Currently, I am unsure of what branch of Medicine I intend to specialise in, but I have a fascination for the heart and immunology. My main reason for choosing Medicine is due to my invested interest in the study of Biology and the anatomy of the human mind, the intricacy of which captivates me. However, I also wish to develop my empathetic responses and to be able to effectively interact with people to get to know them better. I am extremely excited to lead the VMS and I hope to influence others to be confident and risk-taking in their approach to working for these careers!

If you have any questions, feel free to get in contact with me. I would love to answer your queries, whether they be feedback or questions about the application process. 

I want to leave you guys with this quote that really speaks to me about what it means to be a Doctor:

“He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Hi! My name is Charlie Cunningham and I am a year 12 (s5) student, attending Range High Sixth Form in Formby, Liverpool. I am proud to announce that I am your new educational and publicity officer within the VMS and I can’t wait to start my duties and help grow our amazing society! As the only aspiring Dentist within the VMS committee, I hope to bring  knowledge and insight of the dentistry world during VMS meetings and help as many students in the application process as possible. I decided to pursue Dentistry because the ability to restore a persons smile and self confidence is rewarding and personally fulfilling. I was inspired by my own experiences of insecurity when I would hide my smile in pictures and constantly worry about the appearance of my teeth. When my orthopaedic and dental treatment was complete, my confidence was transformed and it was in this moment that I realised the power of dentistry in shaping a persons self esteem and what I could do for other people if I were to follow this career path.  For me, dentistry is challenging, technical and empowering and I cannot wait to see where this journey takes me. 

As I have previously mentioned, I have been elected a dual role within the Virtual Medical Society. This means that I will act as both your publicity and educational officer and it is my responsibility as educational officer, to organise Andy arrange new topics of debate with Jade for VMS sessions as well as managing the medic mentor social media sites. As publicity manager I hope to increase membership and VMS awareness whilst helping aspiring medics kick start their career. 

Born in to a military family, I spent my childhood living in different countries such has Germany and South east Asia. These early experiences have helped me make sense of the world and its many cultures and sparked my desire to travel and see what the rest world has to offer. I love meeting new people with different backgrounds and I hope this experience will be beneficial academically, personally and in my future career.

Thank you for reading my little autobiography, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you enjoy the VMS and make the most of this amazing opportunity.  If you have any further questions please feel free to ask me on slack or in the comment section that should be on the bottom of this page.

Charlie 🙂

Hi everyone! My name is Jade Moosan and I’m a Year 12 student taking A level Biology, Chemistry and Maths at King Edwards Five Ways. I am beyond exhilarated and honoured to be taking on my roles as one of the new educational officers and fundraising officers of the Virtual Medical Society. As an aspiring medic, I am particularly looking forward to collaborating with like-minded students as well as aspiring dentists and vets.

During my free time, I really enjoy listening to and creating music. More specifically, I’m a grade 6 violinist and despite the challenging nature of the instrument, I find it extremely fun and relaxing to play. Moreover, I often play in groups as part of an orchestra which is a great opportunity for me to develop team working skills as well as make new friends and connections with people based off our common interest and love for music. Not only is teamwork a valuable skill for life in general, but especially important for a doctor to possess as part of an MDT. 

My initial involvement with Medic Mentor dates back to November of 2019 when I attended the National Healthcare Weekend. I was always interested in becoming a doctor, however attending this conference undoubtedly strengthened my desire to pursue a career in medicine. Since then, I have enrolled in the leadership and awards programme as well as the summer school next year. Additionally, during the Covid-19 lockdown, I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in the Covid-19 innovation programme where I developed a number of transferable skills and met many new people.

Throughout my role as an educational officer, I will be responsible for overseeing the learning aspects of the Virtual Medical Society. As a result, I’ll be involved in planning the activities that will take place during the weekly meetings and paying close attention to any requests or queries that the members of the society may have.  Furthermore, as one of the fundraising officers, I’ll be responsible for organising campaigns, monitoring the fundraisers that Medic Mentor promote and coming up with creative ways to raise awareness. I’m looking forward to delivering weekly meeting updates on the progress we’ve made and the milestones we’ve reached together as members of the VMS. I believe that being member of the committee is a fantastic opportunity to develop countless transferable skills such as, organisation, teamwork, leadership and research which are crucial for a career in medicine.

Hello, I’m Matthew and I am in S5 at George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh. I am excited to be one of the new Wellbeing Officers on the VMS committee along with Anusha. From an early age I had been fascinated by the workings of the human body and subsequently a career in medicine. However, it was not until I attended a National Healthcare Weekend (now called the “Get Into Medicine Conference”) that I fully appreciated what would be required to pursue this interest further. Following on from the knowledge that I had gained I joined onto the Medical Awards Programme. This allowed me to set goals to achieve criteria that would ultimately assist my application to medical school. Some time later I signed up to the Summer School which I will be attending this summer and was subsequently enrolled onto the Medical Leadership Programme. Then as lockdown hit, I signed up as a member on the VMS to ensure I kept up to date with the medical application process. I have gained many invaluable experiences and bits of knowledge through Medic Mentor that are simply not provided elsewhere. One of these notable experiences was the opportunity to undertake a piece of research in the form of a presentation as part of the COVID-19 Innovation Programme.

As one of the Wellbeing Officers I will be helping to write the wellbeing blogs. We want these to be as useful to you as possible so please do get in contact if there is anything that you would like us to cover. Another aspect of the role is to look after all aspects of wellbeing for the VMS members. This is something that has always been important as part of a full-on application process, but I believe it is even more so now with all that is or isn’t going on around the world. 

In addition, I enjoy playing cricket as a player and also a coach to younger players. I play piano, viola and sing in the chamber choir at school and particularly enjoy the social aspect that music provides. Finally, I also enjoy looking after my many pets including reptiles and amphibians. I have more recently been working hard on improving my nano reef tank.

Hi everyone! My name is Anusha and I’m in Year 12 at The Judd School. I’m an aspirational medic and take Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Physics. When I’m not studying, I enjoy playing hockey, the piano, the oboe and singing. I have also been a part of the Scouting movement for 8 years and love to read and cook (although I am not very good at cooking yet!)

I joined the Medic Mentor family in January 2020 and have felt I have already accomplished so much. I am a part of the leadership programme and am going on Summer School 2021. Furthermore, I am currently doing my Gold Award and have been a member of the VMS since May 2020. Recently, I wrote an article titled ‘Understanding the ability to use an Adrenaline Auto-Injector (EpiPen) In A Teenage Population,’ that was published in the Mentor magazine. 

My role as wellbeing officer will entail helping all of you manage the stresses of applying to medical school. There are many obstacles to overcome whilst trying to obtain a place at a medical school and my role in the committee is finding ways to tackle these problems and to give you some techniques to help you become the best applicant you can be. 

If I was to fulfil my dream of becoming a qualified doctor and graduating medical school I would make it my mission to help as many people as I could. At this point in time, at the beginning of Year 12, I am not entirely sure what speciality I would like to go into so I would go into medical school with an open mind and see what is right for me when placements start in Year 3. Even before I decided to follow a career path in medicine, I dreamt of being able to work abroad even if it was only for a short period of time as I have always loved travelling and was very passionate about learning French and Spanish for GCSE. However, outside of medicine, when I am older I would love to be able to run a marathon (ambitious thinking but currently, I am trying to run more when I have some free time). 

I hope to be able help and interact with as many of you as possible. If you have any questions regarding wellbeing or anything else you are worried about please let me know!

My name is Beth and I am currently starting year 12 at Oakgrove secondary school. I have always wanted to go into medicine, it combines my love for helping people, science, maths and it is incredibly varied. I am really attracted to the fact that each day in hospital can be massively different to the next and each patient has their own individual needs. This is the reason why I have not chosen a specialty that I wish to focus on, I have no idea what I will find interesting when the time comes. 

I am the new research officer which will require me to research topics we bring up in VMS meetings and I will hopefully be making a series of tutorial videos on how to improve the quality of your essays. Previously, I have tried to take advantage of as many of the opportunities that Medic Mentors have provided me with as possible. I first attended the get into medicine conference in February 2020 and since then have enrolled in the awards programme, the leadership programme, have written for two essay competitions, campaigned for the RMBF/MM charity during lockdown and have worked over the summer to pay for the summer school next year. 

Outside of school and medic mentors I love to do kickboxing, boxing and running. I have also taken up meditation to help me relax which I have found very useful. In addition, whenever I can find the time I love to draw, it is a great creative outlet and also helps with dexterity. Once I am a qualified doctor I hope to travel the world, I especially hope to go backpacking in Thailand. I am really excited to be the new research officer and hope that I will be an asset to the VMS.

Hello everyone! My name is Queen. I am currently in year 12 studying Biology, Chemistry and Maths at Basildon Upper Academy sixth form and I am an aspiring medic. I am honoured to be your Oxbridge officer in the virtual medical society, my duty is to make sure everyone is up to date with any Oxbridge related information and of course to ensure this, I will be presenting in the weekly meetings. I am very excited to be able to overall help you all towards your journey to becoming a healthcare professional alongside my brilliant team!I’ve always known I wanted to pursue a career in medicine and become a doctor since a very young age and I very much enjoyed playing doctors and pretending to treat my friends and family members as a child (which was always fun). I do not yet know which aspect of medicine I intend to specify in simply because there are just so many different specialities that fascinate me!! I am particularly interested in cardiology and anaesthesiology yet also many more.
I initially became aware about Medic Mentor during the lockdown and I most definitely could never regret my decision to get involved in such an obliging medical family. I attended the National Healthcare Weekend conference which further broadened my knowledge on the process of getting into medical school. Furthermore, it also motivated me even more to pursue my career in medicine. I applied for a committee role not too long after this  and I was exhilarated to find out that I have been given the role of Oxbridge officer. I will do everything within my power to fulfil my role to the best of my ability and overall help everyone I can in any aspect necessary. I am hopeful to soon enrol into the awards and leadership programme too.An interesting fact about myself is that I previously lived in Ireland for nearly 12 years of my life (I can speak Irish) and I have been a competitive athlete since the age of 4 and I’ve achieved National titles in athletics and still currently compete. Alongside athletics, I also partake in a few other sports such as tennis, basketball and rugby. Furthermore, I have climbed 3 mountains, one being the tallest in England which I surprisingly enjoyed. In my church services, I take pleasure in playing the drums, but I also like playing the recorder from time to time. Prior to COVID, I volunteered for a social group where I spoke to members of the public about knife crime prevention. I also used to take such delight in being able to sing carols for my local care home.Within my role, I wish to further some of my skills such as; organisation, leadership and teamwork as these are important attributes required by a healthcare professional. In the future I also hope to perhaps work abroad for some time as I would love to experience how healthcare is in other countries and I find travelling so enjoyable.If you have any enquiries, please don’t hesitate to ask me as I would be very much happy to help (you can do this in the comment section or slack)