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Hi everyone! My name is Katherine and I am currently completing an intercalated MSc in Molecular Medicine, after which I will be entering my 4th year of medicine!
Over the last 3 years I have been an active member of Cutting Edge’s Committee, taking on a broad range of roles, and have seen it go from strength to strength. Through this, I have gained a thorough understanding of all of the roles within the society, and I would love to have the opportunity to use the invaluable knowledge and skills I have gained in the role of Co-president - so that I can continue to work with and support the rest of committee to keep pushing the society forwards - ensuring we remain worthy of the title of ‘Best Academic Society’ and maybe even ‘Best Medical Society’!

My Previous Experience:
While working as a Pre-clinical Year Rep on Cutting Edge in my 2nd year, I helped to organize a 4-week-long, clinician-taught anatomy revision webinar series, which involved collaboration with medical students from the University of Sheffield. These sessions proved highly successful, and were awarded ‘Best Virtual Event’ at the 2023 Worsley Awards due to the positive feedback we received from students.
I also gained extensive experience in the executive running and management of the society during my time as Secretary of the society last year, and worked with the rest of the exec team to help orchestrate our annual surgical conference.
This year I took on the role of Skills and Education Coordinator, working as part of a team to deliver a comprehensive 6-week suturing series. This allowed me to establish a broad range of surgical contacts through recruiting surgeons from a variety of specialties to assist in teaching at the series, which I hope to use going forward in future events. The series was a great success and was awarded ‘Best Initiative’ at the Worsley Awards. I hope this demonstrates my ability to work as both a leader and part of a larger team to organize large-scale events – all of which are crucial skills for the role of Co-President.
Throughout all of my years on the Committee, I have also helped promote the society, highlighting my commitment to attracting new members, having helped run our stall at the Fresher’s Fair every year. My avid involvement in Cutting Edge’s whole range of events, from volunteering at our popular year 3&4 MOSCEs to assisting at our surgical crash course at the start of this year, our conferences, suturing series, surgical talks and laparoscopy events demonstrates my detailed understanding of how the society functions and my ability to work as part of the larger society team.
I consider outreach to be a key aspect of Cutting Edge’s responsibilities and have volunteered at Teddy Bear Picnic and visited a local high school to teach about medicine and surgery.
Beyond my time on Cutting Edge, I am also an EXSEL scholar, and through this and my time completing my MSc in Molecular Medicine, I have built up a range of connections with academic clinicians and researchers. As someone keen on pursuing an academic clinical pathway myself, I know how difficult it can be to get involved in research and aim to use my contacts to support other like-minded students in getting involved in surgical-based research/audits. journal club and continuing to grow the research newsletter to give students more chance to get involved and develop the skills they will need.
Additionally, I have attended several large-scale conferences – including BSG Live and the ICSM International Trauma Conference, which have allowed me to meet surgeons from across the country and develop ideas for new, innovative events Cutting Edge could run.

Future Ideas:
If elected as your Co-President I have several ideas for how we can continue to improve what the society has to offer our members:

Previously, interactive events, such as our case-based discussion collaboration with oncology society and our laparoscopy event, have been very well-received. As Co-President I will push for more innovative sessions such as these that involve collaborations with other medical societies and explore more niche specialities that students may not otherwise have an opportunity to explore. Attending other conferences across the country has given me insight into potential workshops we could run from abcess draining to ENT emergencies

I will continue to build upon the research opportunities offered by the society - organising a journal club and continuing to build upon the research newsletter we started last year to ensure students are informed about how to get involved and upcoming competitions/research projects.

More CV workshops and sessions surrounding supporting students in building their portfolios and getting ahead in their surgical career pathway.

Continuing to build upon our success of taking our annual conference to a national level last year by ensuring we continue to get it accredited, so those that attend get points towards their portfolios, and establishing collaborations with other surgical societies at other medical schools so we can run a large regional conference with them.

Apply to run larger scale surgical events such as the ASiT conference again.

Ensuring we run more events for later year students as well - including a 4th and 5th year OSCE as these have been requested by students are are highly useful for their revision.

Overall, as your Co-President, I will work alongside the rest of the committee and be guided by your feedback to orchestrate events that help you get ahead in pursuing and exploring a surgical career.

Thank you for reading my application – please consider voting Katherine!

Hello, my name is Noah, and I am coming to the end of my third year of medicine. I have served as clinical-year representative over the last year on Cutting Edge, organising several talks with surgeons, presenting on behalf of the society at ASiT national conference, helping to run the many events provided by Cutting Edge, as well as incorporating the ideas and needs of my year into the society. I also hold a position on Medsoc, and have many connections to wider medical societies.

If elected as your co-president I have many ideas where Cutting Edge could be taken next year:

In previous years we have seen a huge uptake of interactive events, such as the suturing series. An increased number of similar, interactive, surgical events will help prepare students for surgery and will enable them to make informed choices about their futures. More extensive basic surgical skills courses (skin lesion excision, abscess drainage, etc) will raise money for the society and benefit the wider medicine cohort.

I also think that the society can be expanded to accommodate students’ interests in less accessible specialties. Whilst obs and gynae and paediatric surgery continue to be a big point of interest for many students, these are only accessible in 4th year. Cutting Edge can help to open doors to these specialities sooner through talks, taster weeks, and shadowing for younger students to gain experience.

In the same vein of accommodating more interests, I believe that Cutting Edge can do more joint events with other medical societies, taking advantage of what MSF, EyeSoc, CrashSoc, and more, can offer.

As someone with a keen interest in surgery myself, I am aware of how competitive the process is and believe our society should do all it can to empower our members to reach these positions. Specific workshops for the more competitive specialties, such as neurosurgery and cardio-thoracic surgery would help our members polish their CVs and provide reassurance that they are doing what they need to secure their training place.

Also, I believe the society should provide more opportunities for members to enter competitions, like ASiT’s ‘battle of the surgical societies’ to enhance their experiences and portfolios.

Cutting Edge could also do far more for 4th and 5th year students, with the provision of practice OSCEs, and further talks and information on surgical themed electives, as these are both areas that have been overlooked in the past.

All this would be alongside previous successful Cutting Edge events. The concept of one big conference worked extremely well, and I don’t think this should be changed, except for the addition of more workshops and opportunities for students to get involved.

Thank you for your time, I hope that you consider me and my plans for president. I am confident that I can further improve the society to better cater for all students!

Hello everyone!
I'm Shuya Sheng, a fourth-year medical student with a strong passion for academia and a career interest in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Over the past few years, I’ve built strong research connections across Leeds hospitals (LGI, St James’s, and Chapel Allerton) and have been involved in clinical research, wet lab work, systematic reviews, and audits. I am also passionate about passing on the help and inspiration I have received from my supervisors, and I am committed to supporting the next generation of students.

Past Experience
I have been an active committee member of Cutting Edge for the past two years.
As a Pre-clinical Representative, I organized regular revision quizzes and successfully re-initiated the End-of-Year Dissection Room Anatomy Revision Sessions in collaboration with PALS.

This year, I further expanded my contribution as the Mentorship Scheme Coordinator. The scheme was extremely successful, reaching a record number of 22 surgeons and 62 students, with outstanding feedback from both groups. My initial aims—to increase students' exposure to surgery, help them get involved in projects, and explore specialty interests—were fully achieved.

Additionally, I designed and led a novel six-part Research Masterclass series, which received fantastic feedback from speakers and students alike, helping to bridge the gap in research education at medical school and providing invaluable networking opportunities.

Alongside this, I actively contributed to events including the Suturing Series, Mock OSCE sessions, the Annual Conference, and the ASiT competition, despite the heavy demands of fourth year.

Personal Strengths
I pride myself on being responsible, responsive, and proactive. Those who have worked with me know that I am fully committed to the goals we share — and always available to help. I am never afraid to pursue new ideas or collaborations, firmly believing that the greatest opportunities often lie within the unknown. While I am far from perfect as an individual, together as a team, we possess unlimited strengths.

Future Plans
Looking ahead to the next year, I aim to take the society’s successes even further by fostering wider collaborations beyond our current network and expanding opportunities across different specialties and career pathways, such as MedTech and the US pathway.

I will be intercalating in Sport and Exercise Medicine at Leeds next year, giving me greater flexibility and availability to support events, represent our society at national conferences, and champion new initiatives.
My vision is to give all committee members the freedom to continue building on this year's successes, while providing the guidance and support needed to take your ideas to new heights. I want to help you achieve your goals, enhance your CVs, and create real, lasting benefits for our students.

Closing Statement
My guiding principle as Co-President is simple:
To see your needs, hear your ideas, and make them possible.
Together, we can achieve even greater things.
Thank you for considering me!

Hello everyone!! My name is Maisey and I have completed 3 years of medicine; I am currently intercalating in MSc Cardiovascular Health and Disease. This has given me time to build connections with surgeons during organised theatre time and conferences. I have a passion for Cardiothoracic surgery so I have some good connections with the team in the LGI, an inspiring group of female surgeons. I’ve been on Cutting Edge committee for the last 2 years, originally as Outreach Officer and now as Vice President-Secretary. This year I would love to take the final step in becoming Co-President with all the knowledge and skills I have gained in my previous roles.

Previous experience
As Outreach Officer, I led a team to encourage medicine and surgery in nearby schools, in the form of interactive presentations and suturing workshops. We gained positive feedback from both the schools’ administrative team and the students. Over the last 2 years we have reached more students than ever before! As vice president, I played a major role in organising our national conference which had over 10 surgical presenters and over 100 student attendees. I would like to continue this effort this coming year, and with my invaluable experience I believe we could make it even bigger and better! As part of CardioSoc I also independently organised a 4-week echocardiography course combining both practical and presentation-based aspects. This gives you a further insight into my ability to organise large events, a skill which I believe is imperative for this role. I am currently president of St John Ambulance society which has given me an insight into the dedication as well as the administrative demands of being in such an important leadership role.

Future Ideas
I recently represented Cutting Edge at the ASiT conference, supporting my colleagues who reached the final stages of the society competition. I gained insight into other society conferences, and it has given me lots of ideas for potential stations such as a cleft lip plastic surgery station which contextualises simple suturing. I am currently on the SCTS committee, and I would love to host the SCTS student engagement day at Leeds. As Cutting Edge president this would increase our chances of being chosen as well as providing a great experience for our members. This year our research rep excelled, as I would love to take this further next year by setting up a journal club. I have experience in both oral and poster presentations and I would like to share the skills this has taught me with the team.

I’ve absolutely loved being part of the Cutting Edge team and I would be honoured to be co-president this year so please consider me for this role.