Congratulations to Sashiananthan Ganesananthan on achieving Highly Commended in the 2019 Zeshan Qureshi Award for Outstanding Achievement in Medical Education.
Sashi is a penultimate year medical student from Cardiff University, currently intercalating at Imperial College London. He has a deep interest in cardiovascular/gastroenterology research and medical education Progressing through medical school, he found himself in a position where he had the privilege of helping other students grasp concepts of basic sciences as a second-year student. With these efforts, Sashi helped raise money for Welsh Hearts and British Heart Foundation.
Developing from this, he was invited by the medical school to speak to junior years, as a fourth-year student, on how to make the most of the student selected component (SSC), from choosing projects, to get meaningful outputs for career development.
He has established two societies in Cardiff medical school; Cardiff University Gastroenterology Society (CUGS) as the President and the Cardiff Health International Perspective Society (CHIPs) as the Vice-President. From these two societies, he and his team deliveried teaching resources (lectures/OSCE sessions) to more than more than 500 students (in an academic year) and helped international students accommodate to life abroad.
With his passion for widening access, he pioneered and chaired (as President) a pre-medical student event for Malaysians from underprivileged backgrounds and those who wanted to pursue medical studies overseas. The event taught 110 premedical students over one full day and had around 80 Malaysian Medical student volunteers, from around the world (mainly UK and Malaysia).
“It was amazing being able to organise teaching materials with all the tutors to help prospective students from underprivileged backgrounds. From this, we have helped many students get into their dream medical school. It was extremely humbling to be a part of their journey through medical education”
In the future, Sashi hopes to pursue a clinical lectureship post and continue academia alongside clinical practise.
