Newsletter December 2014

I’d like to congratulate our graduating class of 2014 on passing their final exams and graduating as newly qualified doctors. Our graduates have taken Internships at a number of hospitals. 5 will be staying in Wagga Wagga. 2 are moving to Orange, 1 to Alice Springs and the majority of others to Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle and Tweed Heads. I’d like to thank all of the staff and friends of the UNSW Medicine program in Wagga Wagga that have con-tributed to the teaching program. Everyone has done an amazing job and I’m sure you’ve witnessed our 18 stu-dents mature into excellent young doctors, as I have. In this edition there will be photos of the Graduation Dinner held at Magpies Nest with our graduates and their families. The dinner was a huge success and I think we’ve finally found the format to continue with over the years to come. There will also be some photos of the Awards Evening. Our students did incredibly well but particular congratulations to Courtney Noon who was top of the Rural Clinical School in the Surgical exam and I believe is considering a career in surgery. In addition to the teaching skills of our Academics, I’d also like to thank the wider medical fraternity for providing mentorship to our students. Individually, all students comment that there are at least 2 or 3 senior medical person-nel in the region from whom they have received career help and advice and significant mentorship. In part, this is because the students are in Wagga Wagga for between 2 and 4 years. We wish our new graduates great success as they move on to the next journey in their medical careers. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone associated with UNSW Medicine a Merry Christmas. I hope every-one gets to enjoy a well earned break. We’ll be reconvening on the 12th January 2015 with a new intake of Year 5 students. Let’s hope that it’s a terrific New Year all round. John Preddy, Head of Campus

Wagga Wagga Campus

Awards 2014 The 2014 Student Awards Evening was held on Thursday 13th November, 2014 at the International Hotel in Wagga Wagga. There were many achievements and successes acknowledged throughout the student year groups. Award recipients are: REROC Scholarship Award : Lucy McMullen Phase 2 Best All-round student Phase 2: Matthew Lennon Best All-round student Phase 3: Arthavan Selvanathan Tutor of the Year 2014: A/Prof Adriaan Venter Staff Member of the Year: Scott Ayliffe Head of Campus Award 2014: Robert Dickson Phase 3 Riverina Paediatric Award: Sarah Cohn Arthavan Selvanathan Best Performance in Emergency: Zoe Stephenson Best Performance in Primary Care: Sofia Mason Best Performance in Psychiatry: Arthavan Selvanathan Best Performance in Surgery: Courtney Noon Best Performance in Medicine: Jonathan Bleasel Best Performance in O & G: Adelaide Morgan John Abbott Award: Scott Ayliffe Peter Reed Prize for Surgery Courtney Noon Phase 2 students successfully completed their exams on Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th November.

Arty Selvanathan, Year 6 Courtney Noon, Year 6

Year 6 Graduation Dinner 2014 Grad Dinner was held on Friday 31st October at Magpies Nest restaurant. This year, parents of graduating students were invited to share the celebration and the evening was a great success.

Arti Selvanthan, Yr 6 graduate, enjoyed a very success-ful academic year as judged by the swag of awards that came

his way recently. He is also a very accomplished musician. We had been intrigued for some time with this mysterious instrument—a Miruthangam drum. It is a South Indian percussion instrument and Arti has been perfecting his play-ing skills for the past 15 years. He recently played a traditional beat for staff and it was a skilful and mesmerising performance!

Maggie-Kate Minogue, Phase 2, will soon feature in an edition of Outback Magazine as a recipient of financial assistance from the Country Education Foundation of Aust (CEFA). This organisation raises funds to provide finan-cial assistance to rural students to help cover educational costs associated with studying and living away from home. Maggie-Kate’s small community of Harden has a branch of CEFA and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars— outstanding! The assistance, along with encour-agement and support from her family, has helped Maggie-Kate on her way to achieving her dream—becoming a doctor

Christmas/New Year Shutdown 2014

The Rural Clinical School will close at 4pm on Friday 19 December, 2014 for the Christmas/New Year break and reopen again at 8am on Monday 5 January 2015. The staff of

the RCS thank everyone who have supported students and the School throughout the year. Your contribution is invaluable. We look forward to seeing you all in 2015 with another busy and successful year. Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.