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Hi, I’m Jules!
Through the Cutting Edge mentorship scheme, I’ve gained invaluable experience assisting in orthopaedic surgeries, engaging in teaching sessions, and leading a publication. As Vice-President of Leeds Marrow and Welfare Secretary of the LUU Boxing Team, I’ve developed strong organisational and communication skills which I am excited to bring to this role.
If elected, I aim to build an even stronger, more accessible shadowing network by continuing to match students with mentors based on shared interests and encouraging early relationship-building to maximise engagement. I’m committed to supporting both students and mentors with clear communication, focused events, and continuous feedback to keep improving the scheme.
I have shaped these goals through conversations with fellow mentees, my mentor, and Shuya (the current coordinator), who have all kindly offered valuable guidance. Following Shuya’s advice, I plan to diversify our pool of mentors by involving more junior surgeons, who can offer relevant career advice about specialty training applications, while consultants continue to provide excellent shadowing and research opportunities. By understanding each mentee’s individual goals, I hope to match them with mentors who best support their aspirations.
I'm passionate about giving back to a system that has helped me so much and ensuring that even more students benefit from it too. Thank you for your consideration!

Hi Everyone!

My name is Nechama, a second-year medical student and current MSRC representative. I’m excited to apply for the role of Shadowing Scheme Coordinator.

As a first-generation medical student, I’ve experienced first-hand the challenges of forming early connections in surgery—especially with time-pressured clinicians. I’m passionate about making these key opportunities more accessible to all students.

If elected, I will ensure that both current and new mentors are fully aware of their commitments to the programme, while also helping student participants develop the confidence and proactiveness needed to form lasting connections.

I understand how difficult it can be to balance academic responsibilities with seeking opportunities. Having served as the MSRC rep in both first and second year, I’ve gained experience managing multiple commitments while advocating for students. I also attended the Cutting Edge research event, where I had a valuable conversation with Shuya, the current Mentorship Scheme Coordinator. She shared insight into the current challenges of the scheme—feedback I hope to build upon to strengthen the programme this year.

Thank you for taking the time to read my candidate statement and I look forward to helping you out via the shadowing scheme!

Hello Everyone!
 
My name is Alex Fraser and I am in my 2nd Year at Leeds.
 
As someone who did not come into medical school with a clear idea of what specialty they wanted to go into or have many contacts in the surgical field, I understand that the process of building connections and gaining experience can be very daunting.
Since joining the Cutting Edge society in first year I have been an active member, attending workshops and conferences such as the Surgical Skills Crash Course, Women in Surgery webinar and the “Shaping the Future of Surgery” 2024 conference.
 
Over time through working the society, being a part of the Mentorship Scheme and reaching out to surgeons on my own I have gained experience in many different specialties – with some of the highlights being: working in trauma and orthopaedics assisting on an Ilizarov frame removal clinic, spending a week in the summer shadowing a transplant surgeon in St James’ and observing a robotic nephrectomy using a Da Vinci robot. I have also begun work with my surgical mentor conducting a literature search for a potential future research project of his.
 
I now would like to give back to the society by becoming Shadowing Scheme coordinator to keep giving students the opportunity to develop their passions and future careers in surgery and use my experience to help others. I am an organised and approachable person, and am well versed in approaching and communicating with surgeons.
 
I have 4 main goals if I were to become shadow scheme coordinator:
 
Goal 1: Diversity –  I want to show that the scheme is not just for students who have a strong idea of which specialty they want to go into but can be much broader than that. It is important to be able to see yourself in a mentor in some way, and as a female aspiring surgeon I have struggled to find female role models in certain specialties that I have been in. I would like to continue to expand the mentor scheme to include mentors from different points in their career/ training and from all different backgrounds - not just surgical consultants - as I believe this will benefit students in their journey to becoming a surgeon.
 
Goal 2: Personalisation – I want to make sure each mentee has a mentor they are carefully matched with. Through detailed applications, I aim to tailor mentorships to each person, not just about what specialty they are interested in but any broader goals such as developing and understanding how research projects work, helping build portfolios, or gaining more real life surgical experience.
 
Goal 3: Feedback – It’s important to me to understand the point of view of current mentors, mentees and the current Mentorship scheme coordinator in order to improve the programme. I also want to collect positive feedback on anything specific that mentorships have achieved or implemented that has been successful that I can use to advise other groups.
 
Goal 4: Continuous progression monitoring – I know how difficult it can be to keep a connection with a mentor going. I want all mentorships to feel like they have structure to them. I will produce a template for every partnerships crucial initial meeting to help outline the specific goals and set timed targets that the mentees would like to achieve throughout the process and how the mentors will work with them to achieve this. Using this I will be able to provide regular check ins to keep this on track.
 
I have been a mentee and a student and I understand the struggles of trying to fit in the degree and building these extra experiences on top of it. I am ready to dedicate time and effort to this project to really make it work to help students further their portfolio in a way that is beneficial and meaningful.
 
Thank you for your consideration!
Alex :)