Congratulations to George Choa on achieving Highly Commended in the 2019 Zeshan Qureshi Award for Outstanding Achievement in Medical Education.
Throughout George’s time at medical school, he has engaged in a wide range of teaching and educational events to expand his understanding of the different processes and barriers to medical education. George has been involved in UCLMS’s first ever curriculum map to aid student learning, organised dozens of teaching events for a local to national audience, created a new student selected module with peers, and co-organised the inaugural International Surgical Undergraduate and Foundation Surgery Conference (iNUGSC).
As the UCL Medical School Association’s Clinical Education Lead in his penultimate year of medical school, George oversaw upward of 50 academic representatives across several UCL-affiliated hospital sites. He actively promoted the value of feedback and active communication between students and staff to enable constructive conversations towards enhancing the student learning experience. His contribution to this role, and as a representative for the years previously, was recognised by UCL in being awarded Academic Representative of the Year 2019 in Medical Sciences and Overall categories.
“I strongly believe in the engagement students as partners in shaping their learning. Feedback from both students and staff is so important to evaluate and determine the necessary changes to improve on existing practice”
In his final years at UCL, George co-organised a new student selected module for preclinical students having noticed a gap in his medical school curriculum. The introductory module was designed and taught by George and a few colleagues, covering a range of topics such as entrepreneurship, medical technology, medical education and quality improvement. The aim was to provide junior students with the opportunity to engage in and apply the concepts taught, via a student perspective, as well as through specialist speakers, throughout their time at medical school.
“Senior students are in a valuable position to both provide learning to those more junior and share their experiences with staff because they have most recently experienced the education that is on offer and understand where the pitfalls lie. We should work towards improving near-peer teaching provisions as a component of student learning and curriculum development in collaboration with students becoming the norm”
George recently graduated from UCL Medical School and will be starting his Foundation training in Bedfordshire where he hopes to continue engaging in medical education.
