Poole, England, United Kingdom
I am a first year MB/PhD student, working in the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit (Chinnery / van den Ameele lab). Having studied Medicine (Clare College) for four years, including intercalating in Genetics (BA), I am excited to further develop my skills and understanding of scientific research during my PhD. Alongside research, I enjoy teaching and sharing my passion for biological sciences; I deliver small group supervisions for first year medical and veterinary students for their Biochemistry module at Fitzwilliam and St Edmund’s Colleges. Furthermore, I am a Student Ambassador for Medics4RareDiseases, and founded the Cambridge (University) Rare Diseases Society with the aim to promote awareness of rare diseases, and improve education of key themes in rare diseases to the student population. These interests align to a common goal of becoming an academic clinician in the future, as I am motivated to advocate for and conduct research to contribute towards the better understanding and treatment of rare diseases.
I founded CamRDS after being inspired upon attending RAREfest, with the aim to raise awareness for rare diseases. In the role of founder and President, I developed many skills: - Leadership: from recruiting a committee to motivating and leading the team to run a conference. - Communication: I reached out to rare disease charities for support and offered stalls at the conference, and arranged speakers for the Q&A panel and to give presentations. Effective communication within the team was vital to ensure morale and efficient sharing of responsibility. - Organisation, time-management and problem solving: I was proactive in planning the conference and figuring out the logistics (e.g. location, budget, collaborations, timings).
Supervisor for first year medical and veterinary students for the Biochemistry course (MIMS). I deliver weekly small group supervisions to help the students review and explore the lecture content through discussions and essays.
- Helped out at the two July 2022 Open Days as a Student Ambassador, giving tours and helping at the Student Q&A session and at the Subject Fair - Worked at the Clare Gala Day (July 2022), helping with the running of events and running the book and plant sale stall - Was selected to write an article for the Clare Review 2022 “Student Voices” section, about my experiences as a student in Clare College
Point-of-contact between supervisors and Clare College medics in my cohort to organise supervisions (small group tutorials, total >250 supervisions organised).
- Designed a questionnaire to collect feedback for library and study provisions (over 30 responses), and communicated this with a PowerPoint presentation to the College Library Committee - Created an application form for becoming College Subject Representatives, communicating allocations to successful and unsuccessful applicants, and organising the Freshers’ Week Subject Rep Picnic (with considerations for accessibility and dietary requirements) - Stepped into the role of Social Media Rep to upload Meet the Committee introductions on Instagram before Freshers’ Week, including writing image descriptions for each post
- I have done 1-to-1 tutoring to a total of 5 students, adapting and catering to their unique strengths and weaknesses, totalling over 70 hours of online lessons, in addition to preparation of worksheets; - I delivered an in-person one-day intensive UCAT admissions test course, working with two other tutors to 50 students (Aug 2021); - I delivered an online half-day intensive UCAT course to 24 students, for which I prepared an engaging PowerPoint presentation (using Smart Art and animations for >70 slides) and 8 Mentimetre quizzes (Sep 2021). - These experiences have allowed me to appreciate and adapt to the unique challenges presented with teaching online / in person to different numbers of students.