High school students set their sights on medicine in Qatar

During the award ceremony at the college, Dr. Javaid Sheikh, WCMC-Q's interim dean and vice dean for research, presented Chantelle D'mello, a grade 11 student at Qatar Academy, and Nadia Hussain, a grade 11 student at El Eimman Independent School, with two summer scholarships as awards for their winning entries.

The scholarships will send them to Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, where they will visit researchers in laboratories and spend time with Weill Cornell physicians in New York City hospitals.

"We're really delighted with the entries that we have seen, and we hope to hear more from Qatari students in the future—they are the young generation today, yet they will be the leaders of tomorrow and will shape the future of the health care sector," Sheikh said.

Honorable mention awards were presented to Abhirami Nil Appukuttan, Fatima Hassan Al-Sayegh, Kiran Chandra Kedarisetti, Naeem Shoaib Chowdhury and Aatika Sultana Khan. Winning and honorable mention essays along with eight other noteworthy entries will be published in an anthology.

This year's entrants were asked to explain how, as a future doctor, they would make a difference in Qatar's health care system while contributing to its excellence, and what they would focus on in terms of biomedical research.

As a new feature of the contest this year, the entrants had the option of submitting a video about their ideas. Although the essays were the most important part of the entry, two students received awards for their videos—D'mello again won for best video along with Arwa Ahmed El Sanosi, a grade 11 student at Amna Bint Wahab Independent high school.

D'mello's essay focused on the chance to "not only save a life, but to guide it," and she expressed strong interest in cognitive neuroscience and biomedical research in this sector. She explained that Dr. Harvey Cushing, the pioneer of brain surgery, is someone she hopes to emulate.

Hussain's essay highlighted a passion for treating the youngest of patients, and she outlined plans for weekly clinics for mothers and their newborns—"we need a special team of pediatricians to monitor and track infants after their successful births." Data from these regimented visits, she wrote, would also contribute to a database of knowledge from which doctors could learn.

"We had competitive entries and interesting ideas coming from high school students who are really aware of what's going on in the medical field in Qatar. They've done some good research to write these essays. And they've shown what they themselves want for the country. Essay writing provided them with an intimate way to reflect both personality and motivation,"

said Noha Saleh, director of student recruitment at WCMC-Q.

WCMC-Q received 70 essay and video entries this year, Saleh said, and it is hoped that this number grows over the coming years.