WCM-Q essay competition winners return from US trip

Three high school students who won study trips to the US in Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar’s (WCM-Q) Healing Hands essay competition returned to the college to share their travel experiences with senior faculty.Students, Fatima Mohammed al-Abdulla (Qatar Academy Al Wakra), Khalid Abdulrahman al-Nabti (Qatar Academy Doha), and Sultan al-Malki (Qatar Science and Technology Secondary School for Boys) spent one week at Cornell University in Ithaca, upstate New York, with Fatima and Khalid then going on to spend a week at Weill Cornell Medicine’s campus in New York City.The study trips were part of the WCM-Q Doctors of the Future Summer Scholarship, which were awarded to the students after they were judged by a panel of experts at WCM-Q to have written the best 800-word essays on the topic of regenerative medicine.In Ithaca, the students completed academic sessions on research skills, medical ethics, and medical humanities with Dr Krystyna Golkowska, professor of English, director of ESL and coordinator of writing seminars, and visited the Cornell Biotechnology Research Centre, the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Biomedical Sciences, and the Paleontological Institute, among many other activities.In New York City the students completed sessions in the laboratory of Dr Randi Silver, associate dean of Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, learning general lab skills such as pipetting and using a digital imaging microscope, and preparing cultures of lung fibroblasts and of airway epithelial cells. Throughout the week the students worked on research projects, which they presented on the final day of the programme. Other highlights of the week in NYC included a tour of Weill Cornell Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and sightseeing excursions to famous landmarks.Following their trips, the three students were welcomed back to the college for a reception with Dr Javaid Sheikh, dean of WCM-Q.Dr Sheikh said: "We are very pleased to welcome our Doctors of the Future Scholarship Awardees back to WCM-Q and greatly encouraged to hear that they had extremely rewarding, inspiring and enjoyable educational experiences during their time in the US. We sincerely hope that these talented young people are enthusiastic to pursue careers in medicine by applying to study WCM-Q.”The Healing Hands essay contest, which is run by the Office of Student Outreach and Educational Development at WCM-Q, is open to Qatari students in grades 10 and 11. 53 essays were submitted in this cycle, making it the highest number of qualifying essays since the inception of the Healing Hands competition in 2008.Student, Sultan al-Malki said: "The scholarship trip was really an excellent experience, I gained a lot of insight into what life as a medical student, a doctor and a researcher would be like. I think the most rewarding part of the trip for me was visiting the laboratories and seeing how the equipment there works.”