Southampton medical student achievements take centre stage at virtual graduation celebration
The achievements of nearly 200 undergraduate medical students have been recognised at a special celebration event.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, graduation ceremonies at the University of Southampton have been unable to take place in person this year. So instead, they went digital and on Friday 17 July, the Faculty of Medicine released a special graduation celebration video highlighting the names of each graduate accompanied with a photo of them. The ceremony was similar to a real graduation event, with members of staff giving speeches including University of Southampton Pro-Chancellor Jon Sopel and the Vice Chancellor Professor Mark Smith.
Professor Diana Eccles, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, said: “Graduation is a very special time of year and provides a great opportunity to celebrate the significant achievements and dedication of both our students and their teachers.
“This year is somewhat different and unfortunately, we are not able to celebrate together at the moment. Nevertheless, the achievements and the dedication of our students should be recognised, especially this year, as we find ourselves in such unprecedented circumstances. Many of our students graduated early and were able to join clinical teams across the NHS to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. I would like to personally congratulate all of our students on graduating and wish them every success for the future.”
Individual students also received special recognition for achievement.
This year the Donald Acheson First Prize for the highest ranked performance in undergraduate medicine was awarded to Benjamin Russell, who completed the BM4 course and David Brooke Sidebottom, who completed the BM5 course, received the Donald Acheson Second Prize.
The Faculty of Medicine Dean’s Prizes, recognising excellence in overall contribution to the Bachelor of Medicine Programmes and the Faculty, were awarded to Rebecca McCarthy and Kunal Namjoshi, who both completed the BM5 course.
Rebecca said: “I am honoured to receive this year’s Dean’s prize, which would not have been possible without my fellow MedSoc committee members, the Faculty’s senior tutors, and the amazing friends I have made during my time as a student here.
“Southampton has enabled me to begin my career as a compassionate, competent and confident junior doctor. I am so grateful for all the opportunities I have had over the last six years both professionally and personally, and I will look back on my time as a medical student fondly. Thank you to the Faculty for all their amazing work and thank you for choosing me for this prize.”
Ben Russell said: “As someone who studied a humanities subject in my first degree, there were only a few universities that I could apply to do graduate entry medicine. I'm so grateful to Southampton for being one of those universities and for taking a chance on me. I'm proud and incredibly thankful to be able to say that Southampton provided me with the opportunity to excel in medicine, despite my background.”