Speaking at Villiers Park Fantastic Futures Event

I then had the opportunity to speak at the Villiers Park Fantastic Futures event that also celebrated the hard work of its student participants this year.

The Fantastic Futures programme exists to help provide support to students of Year 10 - Year 13 in the Swindon area. The programme includes the mentoring scheme I was part of and has the opportunity to have an e-mentor who is studying the course and/or is studying at the university a student is interested in applying to. They also have exhilarating opportunities to go to universities as part of residential trips to engage in set tasks and practice those teambuilding and leadership skills!

It was amazing to hear all of the great student stories at this night too! I had a fantastic opportunity to speak to some parents as well who wanted to know more about the work of Villiers Park from a student alumnus because at the end of the day, I don't work for Villiers Park but individually endorse them so much! Thank you so much if you did come and speak to me at the event! If you were interested in the blog and I sent you in this direction, thank you for visiting! If you are interested in keeping updated on my journey, please do submit your email on the right hand side of this page under "Follow by Email!" to get updates when I post (which isn't too frequent, but usually when I have something to post!). Feel free also to read back on my journey for advice from Year 11 and onwards!

Photo credit: Villiers Park

In this speech, I discussed my struggles again throughout A-Levels but how rewarding it was to secure my place at university. I have included my speech below in case you wanted to read this also. It is slightly repetitive compared to the last one (but remember I did only go through school once so the experience is the same! haha) but I did adapt it to tailor for this evening.

Villiers Park logo.

My speech:

Hello! My name is Josh and I am a student who worked quite closely with Villiers Park to fulfil my aspiration of studying medicine at my first choice university. I have been part of Villiers Park for the past five years when I went into Year 10 at Lydiard Park Academy.

The journey into university unfortunately wasn’t a straight and narrow path. But Villiers Park helped either eliminate or reduce every obstacle that I encountered.

Through mentoring sessions, I would meet with my mentor to discuss my recent activities. I would explain to Julie how stressful I’m finding things, how I’m worried I’m not going to get the grades and how I cannot find a balance. I was struggling very much through Year 13 as I still wasn’t reaching the entry requirements of my offer from Bristol University. I suffered in silence from the beginning and telling myself that I could deal with the issue independently because I felt quite embarrassed and ashamed that I wouldn’t fulfil the expectation of going to university this year. However, when I spoke to my mentor about my situation and how I was on the verge of giving up, she gave me that confidence again that I could do it. And by talking and developing plans of actions, I knew I could cope for another two-three weeks before the next session. I found the mentoring sessions as an opportunity to vent about my struggles but find solutions to them. My mentor would have open ears and be a voice that provided that guidance and support I needed. As soon as I had opened up about not coping with the change in learning style and needing to adapt my revision regime in A-Levels, my grades improved!

Before this, Villiers Park helped me decide on which university I wanted to apply for. I attended sessions of ‘MedSoc’ from Year 10 which was a group of aspiration medics who wished to study medicine, like me. Here, I could hear from guest speakers directly about their experiences, ideas for placements and even how to construct the perfect personal statement. When it came to exploring universities, I went on many open day trips to different unis. It was fantastic having the mentors with us at the open days because their experience and advice meant that we were asking questions at the open days which I may not have thought of if I had gone with my parents. For example, when going around open days with family, you mostly think of cost of living, student loans etc. Whereas I was asking questions about the course structure, unit content and about placements because we had been informed about the significance of asking these questions. For this reason, I was able to eliminate my long ‘perfect’ uni list to just the five I was going to apply for – with Bristol being my first choice because I felt that course would suit me the best. I have also been running a blog that follows my journey throughout my medical training which I hope has been helping the current prospect medics with their decisions to pursue the degree and what to expect.

The residentials I have been on with Villiers Park has allowed me to develop skills which have benefited me throughout my school years and I’ve carried it on into university. We would learn investigation skills, how to be involved participants and how to manage time appropriately. Anyone can practically work in a team, but I feel that through Villiers Park, it taught me how to work in a team effectively. Three years on, I am still in contact with a lot of my peers and it’s interesting to discuss the differences in the medicine courses in Bristol to Nottingham to Liverpool.

University has been an amazing experience so far. I’ve learnt how to balance my priorities and juggle the time I spend on work and learning with maintaining a social life! My course has been everything I expected and more! I have had fantastic opportunities to become more stuck-in and enjoying placements so much, I am now working as a healthcare assistant in Southmead Hospital! I have made great friends while at university. You are surrounded with people from diverse backgrounds that differ from your own but you all share similar passions and interests! I would recommend university because I feel it is an experience like no other! You will enjoy studying more when it’s in a subject you’re actually passionate about. You meet likeminded people and grow an exciting social life while developing yourself as you grow independently.

As well, before Villiers Park, I would not be stood here in front of you now speaking. I learnt ways to become more of a confident speaker all through the events and activities that I attended throughout the year.

University has been such a challenge but a reward for all the hard work it was worth! It’s so much better finally learning content that I am passionate about and enjoy reading. I am really happy that Villiers Park are still in contact with me because I feel I owe a lot to them. From the staff in Foxton to the mentors, past and present, who have helped me – thank you. And I say it every year but it won’t add up to how grateful I actually am. The skills Villiers Park have taught me has made me the person I am today.

Thank you for listening.

Speaking at Villiers Park Scholarship Programme Celebration Evening

Haha. Why am I smiling like an idiot?

I had the pleasure of being asked to speak at two Villiers Park events this week, one being for the programme I am a scholar for and the second for being a recently set up sister programme, "Fantastic Futures".

At the scholarship celebration evening, it was amazing to sit and hear all of the stories the scholars have created and shared from Year 10, all the way up to Year 13. It was a shame hearing all of the activities they had taken part in, and not being a part of it anymore! From the residentials and trips to the luxury of having an amazing mentor...!

In my speech, I exclaimed about how much Villiers Park really did help me begin my journey into medicine and I cannot preach how incredible their work is. Villiers Park is made up of a great group of people who are so loving and encouraging and want the best for everyone they are supporting.

My speech was delivered during the celebration evening at New College, in Swindon.

The following abstract was taken from the article from Villiers Park's website (as was the photograph in this post). The original article can be found by following this link.

Josh Drinkwater, 19, from Swindon, is studying his first year of medicine at University of Bristol. He returned to speak about life after his four years on the Swindon Scholars Programme.  “I can stand here today and talk to you because of Villiers Park,” said Josh. “My A-Levels were horrible. I tried to sail through but I found I couldn’t cope with managing my time or my stress. A simple review with my mentor, of how I was studying and learning to prioritise helped me through. I still use the skills I developed on the programme, such as communication skills, in my training – for example when I’m talking to patients in clinical settings.”

Villiers Park logo.

My speech, because there were some important things in it I wanted to highlight to you guys, the readers, too!

Hello! My name is Josh and I am a student who worked quite closely with Villiers Park to fulfil my aspiration of studying medicine at my first choice university. I have been a Villiers Parks Scholar for the past five years from when I went into Year 10 at Lydiard Park Academy.

My first year of uni has been very eventful! I have been on many placements from inside Southmead Hospital to doing home visits in Yate, just outside of Bristol. My course has involved lectures on maths, sociology, law, anatomy and biomedicine and even involved going into dissection rooms for a hands-on way of learning about the body.

But I can stand here today and talk to you because of Villiers Park. If it hadn’t been for being a scholar, I probably wouldn’t have achieved my goal.

Firstly, there was trying to become the ‘perfect’ candidate that universities desire. Villiers Park helped me through that by teaching me skills that I thought I already had within me. Instead, I learnt how to apply my skills in different applications. With the communication skills that I learnt in masterclasses throughout the years, I have applied these to my part time job at John Lewis but also even today when I talk to patients in a clinical setting.

Residentials helped build-on pre-existing team working skills. We were all close friends in my cohort so we worked well anyway, but the residentials taught us how we can work effectively. But I could demonstrate all of these skills in my interview for medicine.

I was part of a group called MedSoc which was put together by some of the mentors here today with the aim of helping prospect medics reaching their goal of studying medicine. The workshops would include interview practices, how to select the university for you and what exactly medicine consists of – delivered by presentations and guest speakers throughout the year. MedSoc catalysed my passion for medicine and gave me a driving push which I never knew I needed. I am now privileged to say that I’ve had the opportunity to be on the other side of that table now in the workshops as I delivered a presentation in January to students who were looking at studying a Health Science after they have completed their A-Levels. I have even set up a blog to help inform the students on what studying medicine is really like to help aid them in their decision to pursue it and prepare them for their interviews.

After briefly mentioning it, A-Levels were horrible. I can tell you now that A-Levels are probably the worst thing that you’ll encounter on your path into university. It is completely different to GCSEs so you need to adapt quickly because the “gap” between the two are definitely as big as what the teachers make it out to be. I struggled with my A-Levels I’ll admit and I found them extremely challenging. But that is the beauty of having a mentor as a scholar. At the beginning of the year, I tried to sail through making out to Julie that I was coping. But as it progressed, I realised I couldn’t deal with managing my time and stresses on my own. My mentor was not only open ears that wouldn’t judge me for admitting I was struggling, but was also a handy friendly voice of guidance that provided that support and advice that I needed. Just a simple review of how I was studying, what I was struggling with and possibly implicating a new method of prioritising the content I needed to learn helped me through. It was at that point I admitted I needed the help that I could change the way I worked. It allowed me to then start making progress that was apparent in practically the very final mocks before my summer exams of Year 13.

So I owe it to Villiers Park really. Not only did you help me with finding the university that I really wanted to study at through mentor meetings and workshops, but you helped fuel that passion that I had for medicine. You helped prepare me for my interviews which I was luckily successful in to then receive three out of five offers. The next challenge was achieving those grades, which I have already explained was tough. But, you picked me up again and put me back on the tracks and the support given was enough for me to then sit my exams, more confident than I was a few months before, to then reach those entry requirements and get into Bristol University.

But it didn’t all stop there. Even this year, I am still using the skills and foundations that I had learnt throughout being a scholar. I passed on the tips I learnt from doing a literature ‘dissection’ on a residential to my friends as we were completing an assignment based on three science papers that were in the New England Journal for Medicine. I use those team working skills practically all the time in clinics and facilitation sessions when I am with my group. And finally, I have built on those communication skills and have used them when I’ve been delivering presentations to small groups, speaking with patients on wards or even preparing speeches for presentation evenings! So I would like to say a massive thank you to Villiers Park, as I do every year, but I can’t put into words exactly how grateful I am and how proud I am to call myself a scholar of such a great programme.

As some quick words of wisdom to current scholars, just remember you are the one in control of your destiny – which actually sounds really cheesy but it’s true. Your teachers teach you the content, the past papers help consolidate the knowledge and your mentor is there to provide some guidance and support. However, it is your hard work and determination that will get you to your end goal, whether that be an apprentice or university. Use the resources around you but try your best in everything you do and you’ll have that sense of pride when the outcome is what you intended. Don’t blame the teachers, don’t blame the paper but I’m not saying blame yourself!! But take it as a stepping stone of learning and the best way to learn is through making mistakes. 

I wish you the best of luck in the future. Thank you for listening.

Villiers Park - How did it help?

So I have been part of the Villiers Park scholarship programme since Year 10. I feel that being a Villiers Park scholar definitely set me up for my path into Medicine by providing me with the information and support I needed.

As part of the programme, everyone is assigned a learning mentor that will provide this information and support that I have mentioned before. Through one-on-one mentoring sessions, I would meet with my mentor to discuss my recent activities. I would explain to my mentor how stressful I’m finding things, how I’m worried I’m not going to get the grades and how I cannot find a balance. And by talking and development plans of actions, I knew I could cope for another two-three weeks before the next session. Everyone on the programme found the mentoring sessions as an opportunity to vent about our struggles but find solutions to them, whether it be crafting the perfect personal statement or researching different university choices.

The masterclasses allowed all of us to come together as one group and work towards given goals. But the objective wasn’t the task itself, but the personal and interpersonal skills we developed through it. As shown in our last Year 13 residential in March, we could confidently deliver a presentation better than we could in Year 10 residential. Through Villiers Park, we learnt about how to conduct research, how to process the findings and then present to an audience. These are skills important not just for university, but possibly for most of our jobs and careers in the future. I felt I developed and learned more specialised skills through Villiers Park moreso than I did in our normal PSHE lessons at school.

Villiers Park has helped with our career advice, university choices and personal statement construction. I feel my mentor sessions and the masterclasses provided helped me on track to making me a strong candidate for the degree I wanted to read at university, being Medicine. I was also a member of "MedSoc" which was our Medicine Society. Here, I heard guest speakers (such as paramedics and junior doctors etc) who pass on any advice. We also had interview preparation and help, where we learnt how to address our interviewer, how the MMIs are structured and even advice on current medical affairs and how to approach the ethics in medicine.

There was an opportunity as well for a one-week residential in Foxton that specialises in a subject we feel passionate about – whether it’s engineering, biology, English, politics or computing! I attended the course on Cell Biology and Cancer where I learnt about the different stages of cancer (from a genetic mutation in transcription to metastasis around the whole body). On the course I learnt even more skills, but this sparked my interest for oncology which then initiated my project in the EPQ (which was based on the biochemistry and physiology of cancer). These courses can be assessed by following this link: CLICK HERE. I would certainly recommend a biology/medical fuelled course as this will be of great interest and look super attractive on your personal statement to universities!

If you're still not persuaded to get involved, take a look at these photos:

Personal Statement

You will need to construct a personal statement which sells you to the university. It should advertise you as a person, should be written by you and should make the admissions team reading it go “Wow. Give this person a place!”. You have 4,000 characters to sell yourself, so what should you include?

Firstly, check the university course website. Most universities may post personal requirements that they are looking for. For example, some universities might be looking for a confident resilient individual that has strong communication skills. You want to read across your chosen universities’ websites and refine what you should include. Sometimes there will be an overlap, but you want to sound as appealing to the universities as possible!  Merge all the personal qualities from your chosen universities and construct one personal statement. It is the only one you’ll write and all five universities will receive the same statement.

Don’t fixate TOO much on Medicine in your personal statement. You are applying to five universities, but only a maximum of FOUR of these can be Medicine. Therefore, one university has to be non-Medicine. So this could be Biomedical Sciences, Biochemsitry, Human Anatomy etc. If you apply to Art, they are most likely going to reject you as your personal statement will all be about Medicine!

What should you include?

• Show don’t tell – If the university is looking for a “confident resilient individual that has strong communication skills”, you could use these words but with caution. Don’t use the string of words exactly how they’re written in the prospectus. So instead, show the admissions team what makes you that individual. Maybe you were a head boy? A peer mentor? An adviser for younger pupils? Don’t just say “I work well in a team”, give examples of team led activities you’ve taken part in. 
• All your experience journal entries! Mention BRIEFLY what you did, but what you learnt from it. Don’t dwell too much on certain aspects as interviewers may take them as opportunities for you to elaborate on certain points. I’ll give an example later. Say what you’ve learnt and how it changed you as a person. 
• Your most perfect English, spelling and grammar. Make sure you use spell check! 
• Be passionate without using the word. Do not say “I am very passionate about medicine” because it’s extremely cliché. You want you just put across your passion and strong interests without saying it. 
• Don’t say any cliché terms – it is a complete waste of characters and you only have 4,000 of them so use them wisely. You haven’t wanted to study medicine since you were a child, so don’t waste the energy to type it.  
• Take on board all feedback you receive. Hand your personal statement to anyone that you can! I handed my personal statement to my Villiers Park mentor, two teachers, two doctors and a nurse! I had conflicting feedback, three against three on different parts. One person would say they love one bit where another person would say “Scrap it!”. Personally, it all comes down to you. If you think it should stay, then keep it. If it should go, remove it. You don’t have to take all feedback and act on it – it’s YOUR personal statement. 
• Use short snappy words if you can. Don’t waste characters as “next” uses less characters than “in addition to this”. Remember, conserve those 4,000 characters wisely. 
• Avoid cliché terms like “I am passionate for Medicine”, “I really love Medicine”, “I was born a doctor!” 
• All your own work – do not plagiarise! You will be found and caught out on it. This will affect your opportunity of reading medicine.

Make sure you apply to medical school before the deadline! Then it’s a waiting game….waiting for the university to reply to your application! 

Selecting the Universities

SELECTING

This process will differ person to person. My sixth form was roughly 60 students large and I’m pretty sure everyone approached the university selection process differently. Some people wanted to live on the other side of the UK to their home, some people wanted to stay local. Some people wanted campus universities whereas some people wanted city universities.

I’m not going to write a great amount on this section, because you may choose another path. But think of all the factors that will affect your living and wellbeing in each university. Luckily, you’ve done Step 1 and chosen your course, which I’m hoping is still Medicine and I haven’t put you off!
Now, you need to choose your medical school. The deadline for UCAS will be in October-ish, so take advantage of the summer of Year 12 to visit open days while they’re advertising themselves to prospective medical students.

Take into consideration these factors:

• Cost of living (is it an expensive area?) 
• What’s the medical course like? Spiral curriculum – the university will integrate theory teaching alongside shadowing doctors. Old style of teaching – the university will start with non-clinical years, which is just theory. Then, the university willl end with clinical years, where you will be in the hospital.
• Do you like the city the university is situated within?
• Could you see yourself living here? 
• Distance from home?
• Entry requirements? Are they realistic and achievable for you? 
• Other entry requirements that aren’t grades? Do they have a certain amount of volunteering hours you need? 
• What are the reviews on the university? Are they high in the league table? Are they scoring highly in student pass rate and satisfaction score?
• Is it a Russell Group University?
• Do you enjoy the style of teaching? Like case based learning or problem based learning? I definitely recommend you researching the difference between the two.
• What societies are available? Eg. do they have a pottery club as you’re interested in picking up claywork that you’ve missed since Art GCSE? 

There are many other variables that will determine your chosen universities.

Your FIRM choice will be your #1 choice that you really want to go to. Your INSURANCE choice will be #2 choice. The smart thing to do is be aspiration and aim for the #1 choice as long as it is achievable. If you’re predicted ABB, apply for a medical school with lower grade entry requirements as opposed to a Russell Group university demanding A*A*A. Your INSURANCE choice should back this up. I would recommend your FIRM choice being the university that demands, at maximum, your predicted grades.

If I was predicted ABB, my FIRM would be possibly ABB maximum and my INSURANCE would be BBB. But, you want to manipulate this decision by how much you love the university. If you love Southampton that much but hate the A*AA entry requirement, use it as a fuel motivation to push you to get a place, you might be guessing too harsh so aim higher! With caution though, keep realistic. It’s hard to go from ABB to A*AA if your teachers aren’t predicting it already.


EXHIBITIONS

Make sure you make use of the summer and go to as many university open days as possible. Go and explore the accomodation, ask loads of questions and take a notepad. If you’re not impressed, don’t apply! If you are really impressed, then aim high and go for it! You have a choice in line for Year 13 when you apply to university.

At UCAS Exhibit Days, I’m pretty sure it was our head of sixth form that advised, don’t get attracted by free pens. Don’t hand your email address willy nilly to get a free iPad … I’m still getting emails now from one uni to study Economics because I wanted to win the trip to New York. (I didn’t by the way!)

The main underline thing is to answer questions. Be that annoying student with their hand constantly up. You want your parents to turn around and go “Where is he?” and they spot you speaking to another tour guide student. Any question you may have, any doubt or query, ask! I took advantage of this and I felt so prepared knowing all my questions had been answered.

You should visit your university’s website to find details about open days throughout the summer of Year 12 and September-December of Year 13. You can also visit more than once! If you are limited on time and transport, only visit the universities you’re really debating on applying to. I would recommend you visit open days to at least 5 universities during your Year 12 summer.


UNIVERSITY RESIDENTIAL COURSES

Some university courses offer residential courses that can be completed by Year 12 and Year 13 students to explore a subject they may be passionate about studying at university. These are perfect for two reasons: you can find out if the course you’re interested in is really what you want to do and you can get a taste of the university you’re at.

I attended a Biomedical Sciences residential course at the university I'm currently studying at. With this, I was exploring different aspects of Biomedical Science across 9 weeks. The course days ran across 9 Wednesday evenings, which meant I had to catch a train at lunch time and come back to my hometown at 6ish. It wasn’t detrimental massively to my studies, but I defintely needed to spend my free time catching up with work I had missed. In the course, I learnt about what the uni had on offer and in each lesson was a different aspect, so I would do anatomy, then dentistry, then medicine, then cell physiology etc. This did actually help with my EPQ!

As well as this, you can sometimes get advantages for taking part in the university residential courses. Some universities offer special bursaries, possibly a reduced conditional offer or a guaranteed place or interview. For medicine, I was guaranteed an interview at my university for being part of their residential course. If I wasn’t applying for medicine, but say Biomedical Sciences, I would have a guaranteed offer.

Visit your chosen universities’ websites to see what they have on offer! Some universities offer courses in Autumn and Spring of Year 12 and Autumn of Year 13.

Experience Journal

Document everything you do! The reason I have found this document fairly easy to put together is all because I documented every experience I did. Villiers Park gave me a template that worked perfectly in crafting my personal statement and discussing in interviews.

So an experience journal, how will that help? I would recommend buying a small notebook that you’ll keep from Year 12 all the way to the end of Year 13. All you got to do is plan something you’ll do, like work experience or an extra-curricular activity and then write a short description about it.

For every experience or work you do, answer the following questions:

• What is the date/time I did it?
• What exactly did I do?
• Where was it?
• What did I learn?
• How did this fuel my passion for Medicine?
• How has it changed me/led me to do?

You wouldn’t believe it, but universities only really care about the final three bullet points of that template. You could go complete work experience in India and observe a baby being delivered. But what did you actually benefit from that? If you can’t explain, you clearly didn’t develop yourself. This is to deal with opportunity that is separate from all medical candidates. Some candidates have family working at the NHS so can get readily available work experience. Some candidates can fundraise the money to go to India to undergo medical shadowing and support. Some candidates live in rural areas where there are no surrounding hospitals or surgeries in reach to volunteer or work at. So they’re primarily interested on what you have learnt, how this has fuelled your passion for studying medicine and how it has changed you (whether you did something else after that experience or learnt something).

Make sure you fill this out closer to when you have completed or doing the experience. The purpose of this is to make sure every detail is retained for later recall in your personal statement building or interview practice.

If you write this, you’ve basically got the skeleton to your personal statement and the answers to those questions in your interviews.