In June, we invited applications for the STARSurg steering committee, receiving over 80 high-quality applications. All applications were triple marked by committee members and senior advisors, and shortlisted candidates underwent a telephone interview.
STARSurg are delighted to be able to welcome six new student committee members to the team. We are all looking forward to having their perspectives and input into the support and development of STARSurg in the future! Some of the new committee have been involved with STARSurg in the past (either as local leads, and/or collaborators).
STARSurg has always been a student-led initiative, with 63% (n=12) of the steering committee at present being students. Over the 7 years since the collaborative was founded, we have had 44 committee members which have represented 22 medical schools across all of the UK and Ireland. Therefore, it is fair to say that we are a truly national group! With our new members we now have a committee representing 12 medical schools (Birmingham, BSMS, Cardiff, Dundee, Edinburgh, Exeter, Imperial, KCL, Leeds, Leicester, Manchester)
However, there were some excellent candidates this year, and we would like to thank everyone who applied for the time and effort taken to do so. When considering the steering committee recruited over the years, we are always keen to provide opportunities to progress within STARSurg, irrespective of stage. While the majority of the current committee have been recruited following experience as a regional lead (median involvement of 13 months, range: 5 – 32 months), there have been 9 members who were recruited directly from being a collaborator (median involvement of 7 months, range: 3 – 18 months).
Therefore, we would encourage anyone who was not successful this year (or who may be interested in becoming more involved with STARSurg in the future) to apply for the upcoming STARSurg regional lead position at their medical school (https://tinyurl.com/y6ttqpo5), or continue to remain active and involved as a collaborator on future projects.
Aya Riad, 4th Year Medical Student at Edinburgh University
Rohan Rao Gujjuri, Intercalating year at Birmingham University
Daoud Chaudhry, Intercalating year at Birmingham University
Viktorija Kaminskaite, Intercalating year at Exeter University
Shiraz Shafi, 4th Year Medical Student at Dundee University
Michal Kawka, 4th Year Medical Student at Imperial College London