With our ever growing team, Medics and Me is always on the lookout for building partnerships with new students and teachers. We are currently recruiting for members to become School Leads, a role centred around working with a designated school to organize teaching, gather feedback and allocate mentors to mentees. Today we hear from Precious and Abigail about what this role has meant to them, the benefits gained and the challenges faced.
What does the role involve?
There are many different aspects to this role, including allocating mentees, communicating with teacher leads, and encouraging engagement with Medics and Me resources. Abigail describes how there is plenty of space for making the role your own; she was able to organize multiple zooms throughout the year on the UKCAT, work experience and strategic applications. Precious explains a key part of this role is establishing strong communication with the school, raising awareness of Medics and Me events, and ultimately ‘making sure the school’s needs are being met as much as possible’.
What skills have you learnt?
Communication and leadership are two of the key takeaways from this role, both of which are vital for success in med school and future careers. Monitoring and supporting student progress is also an important exercise in organization, with real life rewards for the mentees. Precious also highlights the benefit of learning to work efficiently within teams and ‘being able to liaison with different groups of people’ to deliver a high standard of teaching.
What are the highlights of this role?
Precious describes that giving a talk about her own journey into med school was a particular highlight, as it showed how her challenges and successes could inspire others to pursue their dreams in medicine. Another highlight is seeing the tangible difference your work can make to the students, being in a position to answer questions and tailor teaching opportunities accordingly can be the difference between students getting offers and rejections. Abigail describes having students who didn’t get in first time but went on to get all four offers after working with her for a year; ‘It’s an amazing feelings as it shows that we can help make a massive difference to the students’ lives’.
What are the main challenges?
As the role is centred around bridging communication between various groups, lack of engagement can be difficult to manage, and at points ‘disheartening’. It can also be difficult to keep on top of the different tasks, particularly when it get’s busy during application and interview periods. However, this makes it all the sweeter when you manage to get everyone on board, working together to make a real difference to these student’s opportunities.
Why do you think mentors should apply to this role?
This is an extremely important and rewarding role; Abigail recalls she was ‘surprised by how being a school lead felt more rewarding than being a mentor. You have more scope to make the role your own and to make the biggest impact possible’. It can also be a great addition to your CV, particularly if you have an interest in widening participation to medicine which is already a competitive field.
Overall, if you want to play a key role in facilitating the work of medics and me whilst also bolstering you’re skillset with organization and communication skills, this role is for you. Check out the application form for more details, applications close at midday on the 30th April 2024.
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