ISC2022 International Jury Coordinators: Participating in the Conference Will Help You Find a Subject You Love

Ning Lee is from Taipei in Taiwan. She is studying Medicine in the 11th semester. She is actively involved in the Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) Asian Society (ASOC) and the Dermatology Academic Society. Hoshika Sivapalan is from Colombo in Sri Lanka. She's in her 10th semester of Medicine studies at RSU. This year, she is the Medical Science Director on the RSU International Student Association (ISA) Board.

Lee and Sivapalan are both International Jury Coordinators on the Organising Committee of the RSU International Student Conference (ISC) that will take place on 24-25 March 2022.

RSU International Student Conference 2022 website

What made you want to help organise ISC 2022 this year?

Lee: I didn't participate last year, but Jenna [Vähäviita, the previous International Jury Coordinator - Ed.] sent an email to all the associations and societies under ISA. It looked interesting, so I decided that I would apply for the role and see what happened.

Sivapalan: I was a passive participant in a couple of workshops last year, and I was also an activist at the conference. I also helped host one of the workshops. I really enjoyed both participating and helping to organise, so wanted to apply for a bigger role this time.

What did you do as an activist?

Sivapalan: I was in charge of helping with a microbiology workshop run by Asst. Prof. Aigars Reinis. It was a virtual tour around the microbiology department at Gaiļezers Hospital with around 250-300 participants. I helped with the video so students could join via Zoom and ask their questions.

What are you hoping to learn by working for ISC 2022?

Lee: Most important are the team building skills, because we're a mix of international and Latvian students. This is the first time I'm working together with Latvian students. The second thing is that this is a great way to learn about different professors and medical professionals around the world.

Sivapalan: We get a lot of contacts at different universities. It's great to be reaching out to interested professors who aren't just from your own country. These are people we can later invite for guest lectures or academic seminars. 

How is the work structured?

Lee: Our monthly meetings are online most of the time. The meetings are in English, which helps us understand. There's good communication in the group.

Sivapalan: I've worked with Latvian students before on some Student Union (Studējošo pašpārvalde, SP) projects, but they were not as large-scale as this. It's really nice that the meetings are in English and that everything is very transparent. They're all very easy people to work with, so we're definitely making friends along the way. I especially want to compliment Aija Tumova, the Chair of the Organising Committee. She's always checking up on everyone, and the coordination is great.

What does the jury do at the conference?

Sivapalan: We have around 20 categories across which students present their research. For each category, you need a jury that is made up of 4-5 members. Ideally, we would like for there to be at least 1 international jury member on each jury. This is to encourage international students to present their research too. Ning and I are working on finding these jury members. They have to be specialists, have a PhD, or be specialised doctors in a specific field. We were given a list of jury members from last year, but we made it our priority to search for new ones first then if they decline, we go back to the list. I think we got quite a lot of new people this year.

You're both very active in RSU student life. What do you feel like you're gaining from these extracurricular activities that will help you in your careers?

Lee: I joined ASOC because we have a lot of events that bring asian students closer. I want them to feel at home here, because people can usually only go back to their countries once a year. I participate in the RSU Dermatology Academic Society because I want to get to know the subject better and this will help me know what I want to do later for my specialty.

Through ISC, I first and foremost want to get to know more about different doctors around the world. Different doctors have different viewpoints that I can learn from.

Why do you think that research is important for students? Should everyone get involved?

Lee: I think all medical students eventually get involved in research in one way or another. Medicine is based on evidence-based research and when we study we need to look a lot of things up, check books etc.

Research is not only for people who are really passionate about something, but for everyone who's studying medicine. 

Sivapalan: I agree, but I think that when a lot of students pick research they tend to go to the popular topics. The cardiovascular field is really popular right now, so everyone just does that. I think you should spend some time on picking topics that interest you and not just jump into something. Students often start out their research and then don't complete it. They do the initial steps like reviewing the literature and finding out more about a topic, but there are steps you need to follow after. Often, they start to read the literature and realise that it isn't for them, which wastes everyone's time. You should consider your topic a little more before you start contacting mentors, but other than that I think that research is something everyone should do.

Can you elaborate more on the fields that you are interested in? Are you doing research?

Lee: My uncles and aunts are all surgeons, so I've seen a lot of cases and been interested for a long time. Last year, I was in the RSU Surgical Association and we organised a movie night where a professor spoke about a procedure and the students watched. This made me like surgery more. Regarding dermatology, I'm interested in skin because I have many allergies myself that present on the skin, so I want to know more about it. Dermatological problems are also very common. Everyone will have at least one dermatological problem at some point in their life.

Sivapalan: I got interested in obstetrics after the course we did at RSU. It was really well organised. I'm mostly involved in the RSU Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society right now and they have really great, encouraging mentors.

It's nice because obstetrics is one of those fields where you're connected to a patient for a long time because you follow their pregnancy. And most of the time there is a good result at the end. It's a rewarding field. I'm also interested in plastic surgery because I'm interested in reconstruction. It's a creative field and you work more in your own time because there aren't many emergencies. I think when a lot of people think about plastics, they tend to think about breast implants, but there is much more to it than that, like burn victims and cleft palate reconstructions.

I'm not presenting anything at the conference, but I am working on two research projects with a group of people. One is a collaborative study on cardiovascular outcomes after surgery. The ISC 2022 Project Coordinator Aija is also part of this team. The research is taking place at the Gastroenterology and Urology Departments at Gaiļezers and at PSCUH. I think that's pretty cool, especially for students who are starting out, to have access to stuff like this. You're in a team with people who have already done so much research ahead of you, so you're being guided and you're also not alone. You get help from the ethics committee, so you start to learn a lot when you join a team like this.

RSU International Student Conference 2020

Is the conference all online this year, or will there be any in person events?

Sivapalan: The presentations are online, but the workshops are on site.

What would you say to a first year student who has just read about the conference and might be scared to participate or think it's not for them?

Sivapalan: The workshops should be a great incentive. Many of them are based on clinical skills that are not really taught to you during class, because they are so advanced. Suturing a cornea is something that you wouldn't do unless you do an elective on the subject. In the workshops you work in a smaller group, which is a great opportunity for students. 

Lee: The conference isn't just for students in higher semesters. It's a great chance for lower semesters to get to know different topics in medicine. Once they're at the conference, they can see what topics they are more interested in. Afterwards, when they're in a higher semester and going to do a placement or write their thesis, they can focus on that subject in more depth. Participating in the conference will make it easier for them to make that decision later. 

Sivapalan: I agree. It's quite funny, but we've noticed that a lot of first year students are already joining and showing an interest in research. ISA hosted a panel discussion on research last year and a lot of the students who joined were first year students who were looking for a way to get started in research. The interest is already there.

If you are a first year student who's not really sure if you want to go into research, I would suggest at least joining as an activist at the conference. This gave me the opportunity to listen to everyone's presentations last year.

Even if you're not interested in that particular topic, you'll learn something new.