medical student essay competitions 2023

Essay Contest

The 2024 Essay Contest is now closed. Winners will be announced in July.

About the Contest

The Lasker Essay Contest engages early career scientists and clinicians from the US and around the globe in a discussion about big questions in biology and medicine and the role of biomedical research in our society today. The Contest aims to build skills in communicating important medical and scientific issues to broad audiences. The topic is announced annually in early February, and winners are announced in mid-July.

Eligibility

The Contest is open to medical school students, interns, residents, and fellows; doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in biomedical sciences; and graduate students training in health professions programs e.g., public health, dental, pharmacy, etc who are currently doing research. Applicants (from the US or any other countries) must be currently participating in an educational program. This program may be located in any country.

Winners will receive up to $5,000. Monetary prizes will be directed to the winner’s university to be used towards the winner’s educational expenses.

Essays should be 800 words or less and must be written in English. We allow only one essay submission per applicant, and the essay must be written by a single author. The use of any generative AI tool (e.g. ChatGPT) in composing an entry is prohibited – all essays will be screened with software designed to detect use of AI. Essays need to be original; content previously published will be disqualified.The file containing the essay should include the essay title and the applicant’s name, email, and institutional affiliation. The 800-word limit applies to the body of the essay. Field-specific scientific jargon should be avoided or explained.

Evaluation Criteria

Essays will be evaluated based on their originality, quality of writing, style, and clarity. Essays that are not written in English or are longer than 800 words will not be considered.

Publication

The winning essays will be published in the July issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation .

All Winners

Meet the Winners of the 2023 Essay Contest and Read the Essays

Meet the Winners of the 2022 Lasker Essay Contest

The 2022 Lasker Essay Contest

Meet the Winners of the 2021 Lasker Essay Contest

The 2021 Lasker Essay Contest

Winners of the 2020 Lasker Essay Contest

Winners of the 2019 Lasker Essay Contest

Winners of the 2018 Essay Contest

Winners of the 2017 Essay Contest

Winners of the 2016 Essay Contest

Winners of 2015 Essay Contest: The “Research Challenge”

2014 Essay Contest: Supporting Medical Research

Read the winning essays.

Allison R. Chen Research Training in an AI World

Louise O. Downs Is a Test Better Than No Test When There Is No Treatment?

Ayush Kumar Using HG1222 — A Perspective Into the Ethics of Collecting Biospecimens

Salman E. Qasim The Human Brain: The Final Frontier and the Wild West

Sneha P. Rath Cementing the Bricks

Kaelyn Cummins Microbes, Medicine, and Astronauts: Reflections on a Collaborative Project

Azmina Karukappadath Two Fields, One Dream

Hussain Lalani I Would Be Scared if I Heard That Too

Rutvij Merchant Pathways to Global Health Equity: More Seats, Fresh Perspectives

Kirti Nath Puzzles

Avik Ray Unified Diversity: The Team Game

Ziad Ali What Happens Now?

Banafsheh Nazari Embracing Technology, the Pandemic’s Lesson for Us

Trisha Pasricha One more question

Miriam Saffern My Mother is a Layperson

Adina Schonbrun The Cornerstone of Scientific Success: Unsung Frontline Heroes of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Emily Ashkin Michael Bishop: A Scientist for the Next Generation

David Basta For the Love of Science

Avash Das Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein: Tribute to My Inspiration

William Dunn Sweet Are the Uses of Adversity

Safwan Elkhatib Salk, Sabin, and the Crown of Health

Laurel Gabler Putting “People’s Health in People’s Hands”: How the Bangs Inspired my Personal Journey

Kwabena Kusi-Mensah As One Single Tribe: Thinking Globally and Locally

Lisa Learman With the Corn, Against the Grain

Olivia Lucero Genetics as a Tool for Generational Empowerment

Hannah Mason My Gym Genie: Gathering Inspiration from Dr. John Schiller

Samantha Wong Fauci: Science as a Voice of Reason

Grace Beggs Game On: Smartphone Technology for Science Education

Peter John Making it All Fun and Games in the Biomedical Sciences

Dereck Paul Pathways: A National Mentorship Program for High School Students Underrepresented in Science and Medicine

David Hartmann Cancer Survivors: Outstanding Advocates for Trust in Science

Debra Karhson A Verification Vaccine for Social Contagion

Caroline Vissers Diversity at the Top of the Social Media Signaling Cascade

Abigail Cline Science and Cinema: From the Benchtop to the Big Screen

Tammy Tran Science Is Everywhere: Unexpected Science Encounters in the Course of Everyday Life

Michael Wu Search for Science: Smart Search-Linked Discussion Forums

Jennifer Bratburd Breaking through Barriers to Science with Citizen Science

Apurva Lunia Dissemination of Biomedical Research Via Multimedia Platforms Using Existing Healthcare Frameworks

Jessica Sagers Let’s Get Real: (Re)making Scientists Into People

David Ottenheimer Modern Neuroscience Has the Tools to Treat Psychiatric Illness

Therese Woodring (Korndorf) Hacking the Bacterial Social Network: Quorum Sensing and the Future of Microbial Management

Unikora Yang The Cutting Edge of DNA Editing: Translating CRISPR to Improve Human health

David Hill Mutual Understanding: Uncovering the Mechanistic Basis of the Host-Symbiont Relationship in Human Health

Joseph Rathkey In Silico Modeling as an Ideal Platform for Future Biological Research and Discovery

Stephanie Ng Depression and the Final Frontier

Omar Toubat Mastering the Genetic Reprogramming of Cells

Peter Soh Offering Incentives for Future Scientists

Michael Burel Catalyzing Broad Public Interest in Scientific Research

Nick Andresen Crowdsourcing a Medical Research Donation Database

Gregg Gonsalves Researchers as Advocates and Activists

Building Trust Essay Contest

• John A. Benson Jr., MD Professionalism Article Prize
• Profiles in Professionalism
• Medical Education and Training
• Endorsements of the Charter
• Organizational Trust
• 2019 Trust Practice Challenge
• Commitment to act for health equity
• Choosing Wisely®
• 2023 Reframing Trust – A Path to Address Misinformation
• 2022 Fact or Fiction – Strategies for the Misinformation Age
• 2021 Pursuing Trust Striving for Equitable Health Care
• 2020 Building Trust & Health Equity
• 2019 [Re]Building Trust – A Path Forward
• 2018 [Re]Building Trust

In 2022, the ABIM Foundation launched the Building Trust Essay Contest to explore the diverse activities or projects that medical students are engaged in that build trust with their schools, faculty, peers, patients, and communities.

Building on the success of it’s first two years, the 2024 Building Trust Essay Contest has expanded its scope to welcome submissions from students across all health professions, including nursing, medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, and others. This expansion maintains the contest’s foundational commitment to exploring and celebrating initiatives rooted in trust.

2023 Essay Contest

• Molly Fessler , University of Michigan Medical School 
• Isra Hasnain , The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
• Ian Jaffe , NYU Grossman School of Medicine
• Meher Kalkat , The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 
• Elina Kurkurina , Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University 
• Christopher Montgomery , UCSF School of Medicine 
• Maria L. Belalcazar, MD , Vice Chair for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of Texas Medical Branch
• Marianne M. Green, MD, FACP , Vice Dean for Education, Raymond H. Curry MD Professor of Medical Education, and Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine
• Lorna A. Lynn, MD , Vice President of Medical Education Research at the American Board of Internal Medicine
• Furman S. McDonald, MD, MPH , Senior Vice President for Academic and Medical Affairs at the American Board of Internal Medicine
• David Reuben, MD , Director, Multicampus Program in Geriatrics Medicine and Gerontology and Chief, Division of Geriatrics at UCLA
• Annelise Silva , AMSA National President-elect, medical student at Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine
• Rohini Siva , AMSA National President, 4th year medical student at Eastern Virginia Medical School
• Daniel Wolfson, MHSA , Executive Vice President and COO of the ABIM Foundation

2022 Essay Contest

• Teva Brender , Oregon Health & Sciences University
• Howard Chang , THe Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
• Sunil Joshi , Oregon Health & Sciences University 
• Meher Kalkat , The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine 

Honorable Mentions

• Clarice Douille , Creighton University School of Medicine
• Veenadhari Kollipara , Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
• Paul Lewis , Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
• Armaan Ahmen Rowther, PhD , The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Suman Vadlamani , UT Southwestern Medical School
• Nicholas Wilson , Morehouse School of Medicine
• Andres Diaz , Editor of AMSA’s  The New Physician , MD/PhD student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson
• Shan Jin , AMSA Academy Chair, a third-year medical student at the NYIT College Of Osteopathic Medicine
• David Reuben, MD , Director, Multicampus Program in Geriatrics Medicine and Gerontology and Chief, Division of Geriatrics at UCL
• Michael Walls, DO, MPH , AMSA National President, graduate of Touro University California

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Helen H. Glaser Student Essay Award

To encourage medical students to write creative narratives or scholarly essays relevant to medicine. Winning essays will be published in the Autumn issue of  The Pharos .

Important Dates

Deadline for submission.

• Download the announcement and checklist here

Winners will be annouced

Cash awards of $1,500 for first place; $1,000 for second place; and $850 for third place.

Eligibility

Authors must be enrolled in medical schools that have an active ΑΩΑ Chapter or Association but need not be members of ΑΩΑ. However, if the author is an AΩA member, he/she must be an active member. Only one entry may be submitted per student.

Requirements

1. Essays must be written while the student is in medical school, must be the work of a single author, and must be an original work. The essay must not be offered to, or published by, any other journal or entered in any other contest prior to submission or during, the AΩA selection process. 

2. The essay must be related to medicine.

3. Essays should not be fictional or written in first person, but academic/scientific in theme.

4. The essay must not exceed 15 double-spaced pages of 12-point type with minimum 1-inch margins, exclusive of reference listing. The author’s name and essay title must be on each page, and all pages must be numbered.

5. Unique references, numbered consecutively, should be limited to 20. (Reference citation of a website is not acceptable unless a site is the sole source of the information or has official academic credentials. Examples of acceptable sites are official government web pages such as that of the National Institutes of Health.)

6. The Pharos Editorial Board suggests that authors review George Orwell’s “6 Rules for Writing”.

7. Essays that are not selected as award recipients may be submitted to other contests/publications after the winners are announced on March 8, 2024.

8. Essays not meeting all requirements will not be considered.

Questions may be directed to

Questions may be directed to  Libby Appel at 720-859-4149, or  [email protected]

All AΩA awards, fellowships, grants, and program submissions must be electronically submitted through the appropriate page on the AΩA website.

Past Student Essay Winners

Previous winners.

Begun in 1982, this award is annually awarded in June.  All medical students enrolled in schools with active AΩA chapters are encouraged to apply. The purpose of this award is to encourage medical students to sit down and write well-crafted creative narratives or scholarly essays relevant to medicine.

• First prize : $1,500
• Second prize : $1,000
• Third prize : $850

Winning essays will be published in future issues of  The Pharos.

• First prize – “The Words We Use Matter” by Mary (Molly) Fessler, University of Michigan Medical School
• Second prize – “Pathway Programs: A Promising Pipeline to Diversity and Equity for Tomorrow’s Physicians” by Ben Rhee, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
• Third prize tie – “What TikTok Teaches: Women’s Health and Medical Misinformation on TikTok” by Madelaine McElrath, New York Medical College
• Third prize tie – “Automation of Medicine: The Intersection of Healthcare and Artificial Intelligence” by Nitin Nadella, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
• Third prize tie – “Chronic Pain: An Invisible Disease in Western Biomedicine” by Allison Yan, The Ohio State University College of Medicine
• First prize: “Yellow Plague in America: the intersections of disease, social determinants and discrimination” by Rebecca Chen, Baylor College of Medicine
• Second prize: “The Silent Pandemic: Told & Untold Stories of Mental Health in a COVID-19 World” by Geetanjali Rajamani, University of Minnesota Medical School 
• Third prize: “Sociomedicine: Explanations for Race Disparities in Infant Mortality” by Adrienne Simmons, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine   
• First prize:  “Historic Context & Communication: Undoing Medical Mistrust” by Olivier Joseph, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
• Second prize:   “Health Care’s Carbon Footprint” by Preethi Kesavan, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
• Third prize:  “Respect” by Jaclyn Arvedon, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University
• First prize:  “If Dementia Comes for Me” by David Ney, Sidney Kimmel Medical College
• Second prize:  “Just the Honey” by Gillian Stein, New York University School of Medicine
• Third prize:  “Hair and Its Stories” by Jesse Perdily, New York University School of Medicine
• First prize:  “The Price of Pills: A Brief History of the Kefauver-Harris Amendment” by Reid Wilkening, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
• Second prize:  “The Louse Manifesto” by Prisca Alilio, University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine
• Third prize:  “Don Ze Pill” by Rebecca Grossman-Kahn, University of Michigan Medical School“Historic Context & Communication: Undoing Medical Mistrust” by Olivier Joseph, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

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The BSANZ Medical Student Reflective Essay Competition

The balint society of australia and new zealand has announced the winners from the 2023 medical student reflective essay competition..

There were a record 89 entries this year, with a very high standard of writing covering a wide range of topics.  After several rounds of reviewing, the reviewers are pleased to announce the top 12 essays as listed in the table below.

Congratulations to Megan Torpey and Taneka Tezak who received The Lawrence Gilbert Memorial Prizes.  Runners up were Geetika Malhotra, Alisha Sethi, Dikshya Parajuli and Tuyen Pham.  Links to all these essays will be listed in due course.

Our thanks go to the local and international group of essay reviewers who did an amazing job this year.

Results and essays from previous competitions can also be accessed through the links listed below.

Essay requirements for the next competition in 2025 are listed as well, with a submission date expected to be in July 2025.  We look forward to hearing from you then.

Hamish Wilson (Dunedin, NZ) and Alexa Gilbert-Obrart (Sydney Australia) Conveners on behalf of the BSANZ

2025 Essay Requirements for Medical Student Writing Prize

Medical Student Writing Prize 2021 Results

There were 45 entries in 2021, with a very high standard of writing. Congratulations to Madison Booth and Stephanie Lee who received The Lawrence Gilbert Memorial Prizes.

We would like to congratulate all the students for their perceptive essays about their interactions with significant patients, as well as for their insights about the nature of clinical training and medical practice. Four essays from the 2021 competition were published in medical journals (Journal of Primary Health Care (NZ) and The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine (US)).

Many thanks to students and our reviewers who have made this essay competition such a success.

Alexa Gilbert-Obrart and Hamish Wilson On behalf of the BSANZ.

Winning essays from 2021

Too Momentous for Words , by Madison Booth (University of Queensland)

Beyond the Medical , by Stephanie Lee (Bond University)

An unexpected journey , by Thomas Swinburn (Auckland Medical School)

Homecoming , by Rebecca Gandhi (Auckland Medical School)

Further information about past winners of the Medical Student Reflective Essay Competition is available here.

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Student Essay Prize

2023 student essay prize: what is the most important emerging challenge for global health over the next 5 years and how could this be overcome.

The essay topic for this year is "What is the most important emerging challenge for global health over the next 5 years and how could this be overcome?"

This Student Essay Competition is for students studying global health as a degree, or any degree with a component of global health or medicine.  It is open to current, full-time, students, based anywhere in the world. Evidence of student status must be provided at the point of submission.

The essay topic for this year is “What is the most important emerging challenge for global health over the next 5 years and how could this be overcome?”

The essay should clearly set out your personal perspective and specific view, with evidence to back up your choice. The essay must demonstrate a combination of scholarship, original thought, and analysis.

The essay should be between 1,500 and 2,000 words, excluding references, footnotes, and tables.  A 150–200-word summary should also be submitted together with the essay.  All sources must be appropriately acknowledged using references numbered in the order in which they appear in the text with brackets e.g. (2) for reference 2. References do not count as part of the word count.  

The essay must be in English. Please try and organise the essay into a logical succession of headed sections, where possible.

The essay should be entirely your own original work and should not have been previously published. All essays will be checked for plagiarism, and we encourage you to refer to an academic writing handbook such as this one produced by LSHTM for guidance . Please note that if the summary is omitted, the essay will not be considered. Only one essay per person can be submitted.   

The winner(s) will be selected by a panel of experts, and the decision ratified by the RSTMH Education and Training Committee. Highly commended essays may also be selected. The decision of the Committee is final.  

 The panel will be assessing essays using the following criteria:

• How well your personal perspective links to the local/national/international landscape
• How well structured the essay is 
• How easy the essay is to understand 
• The evidence basis for your essay, including how you make use of relevant references
• How much does the essay inspire or engage the reader

Announcement and prize

We may publish on our website or in our newsletter anonymised data relating to submissions to the competition. We will announce the winner’s name and essay title, plus that of any highly commended submissions on our website and through other communication channels. We may publish submitted essays on the RSTMH website and through our other communications channels. We may publish the winning essay in our scientific journal and on our website. By submitting an essay, you agree to these conditions. The prize for the winning essay is £200, plus a year's free student membership to RSTMH, either new or a renewal. We will also invite the winner to be presented with a certificate and their prize fund at an RSTMH event in 2024.

The essay should be submitted by 5pm GMT Thursday 23 November 2023

History of Student Essay Prize

We launched the Student Essay Prize in late 2018 after discussions with our Training and Education Committee to encourage students of varying disciplines to engage with the fields of tropical medicine and global health.

Previous winners

2022 Hannah Lin, Cambridge University, "The Collateral of Conflict: The Effects of War on Health At Home and Away"

2021 K.M. Pavani Senarathne, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, "Burden of a "universal" healthcare system: The story of a common man from Sri Lanka"

2020 Mark Tan, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, "COVID-19 In An Inequitable World: The Last, The Lost, and The Least"

2019 Anouk de Cort, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, "The hidden clinical picture of climate change"

2018 Matthew Spencer, University College London

Royal Medical Benevolent Fund

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Essay competitions, awards and prizes

If you have a flair for essay writing, then look out for competitions run by the Royal Colleges and many other professional medical associations, usually to encourage interest in their specialty. Closing dates for submission fall throughout the year so keep your eyes open!

Some organisations that run competitions include:

British Association of Dermatologists

• British Association of Forensic Medicine
• General Medical Council
• Medical Women’s Federation
• Pain Relief Foundation
• Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
• Royal College of Ophthalmologists
• Royal College of Pathologists
• Royal College of General Practitioners
• Royal College of Radiologists
• Royal Society of Medicine (for members only, costs £25 a year to join)
• Institute of Medical Ethics (for F1 & F2 UK doctors)

Project Funding

Some organisations and Trusts offer funding for research projects, vacation research work experience and intercalated degree year research. We’ve compiled a list of these, again it isn’t exhaustive so we do encourage further research.

Some of these applications may require a supporting statement from a member of academic staff. Check criteria carefully before applying.

The Biochemical Society

Grants are available for stipends of £200 per week for 6 – 8 weeks, and up to £1,600 in total, to support a summer placement in a lab for an undergraduate student. Applications must be made on behalf of and in association with a named student.

Website: www.biochemistry.org Email: [email protected]

The British Association of Dermatologists offer a range of awards between £250 and £3,000 towards fees and living expenses for an intercalated year project related to dermatology and skin biology. It also offers £500 undergraduate project grants.

Website: www.bad.org.uk Email: [email protected]

Association for the Study of Medical Education

The Association for the Study of Medical Education offers awards related to the development of excellent medical education. Applications are welcomed from anyone on the continuum of medical education (UG, PG or qualified and studying professional development) and will be assessed against their criteria. They also have a number of other essay prizes available and awards so it is worth researching their website.

Tel: 0131 225 9111 Website: www.asme.org.uk Email: [email protected]

The Genetics Society

The Genetics Society Summer Studentship scheme offers grants of up to £3,000 for undergraduate students interested in gaining research experience in any area of genetics by carrying out a research project over the long vacation ( more information ). They also have a range of competitions and awards that you can look into on their website.

Website: https://genetics.org.uk/grants/summer-studentships/  Email: [email protected]

The Institute of Medical Ethics

The Institute of Medical Ethics (IME) offers grants, student elective bursaries, and scholarships (covering the next academic year) for students wishing to do an intercalated degree in medical ethics or an allied subject.

Website: https://ime-uk.org/grants-and-competitions/ 

The Physiological Society

Vacation Studentships offer undergraduates the opportunity to undertake a research project on an area of physiology over their summer break. Working under an academic supervisor, they can get to experience day-to-day life in the laboratory first-hand. Funding of £150 a week, to cover living costs, is on offer for up to eight weeks.

Website: www.physoc.org Email: [email protected]

The Pathological Society

Funding for students wanting to intercalate a BSc in Pathology but who do not have LEA or other government support. Also offer awards to fund electives and vacation studies in pathology.

Website: www.pathsoc.org

The Paget’s Association

The Paget’s Association awards Student Research Bursaries of up to £6,000 to promising UK medical or science students (MRes, MSc, BSc or equivalent higher degree) to pursue research into any aspects of Paget’s Disease of Bone.

Tel: 0161 799 4646 Website

Other resources

The list above is not exhaustive so we do encourage further research.

A good place to start is RD Learning , a database of health-related research funding opportunities.

Please contact us if you notice any broken links, of any other funding opportunities or if any options are no longer running.

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Paul Kalanithi Writing Award

Paul kalanithi was a physician writer and neurosurgery resident at stanford university. in the final years of his training, he was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. his memoir,  when breath becomes air , beautifully chronicles his reflections on living with illness and the meaning of legacy. the paul kalanithi writing award was created in his memory. , open for submissions: november 8, 2023.

This short documentary by Stanford videographer Mark Hanlon captures Paul Kalanithi’s shifting perception of time while living with terminal cancer.

Lucy Kalanithi often visits the gravesite of her husband, Paul Kalanithi, with the couple’s daughter, Cady, to picnic and leave flowers. (Photo by Timothy Archibald)

Prize Winners

2023 prize winners.

First place essay:  A Good Death |  Heather Alva, MD

First place short story:  Home Videos | Tatyana Singh

First place poety:  Bulbs |  Lana Corrales 

First place poetry (tie):  Lunch Break/Brave Face |  Aidan Theepura Kunju

2022 Prize Winners

First place:  Sick Girl Goes on a Date  | Alyson Lee

Second place: To Sit With   | Brian Zhao

Third place:   What That Poem was About   | Fiona Miller

Fourth place: I Wear You Like a Memory | Nicolas Seranio

Honorable Mention

  Junk Journal  | James Hyun Lee

2021 Prize Winners

First place:  Sliding Down  | Michael Rabow, MD

Second place:   Silver   | Hannah Joyner

Third place:   Of Seeds  | Rachael Peckham, PhD Honorable Mention

How to Deal with Charon  | Brian Smith, Medical Student

2020 Prize Winners

1st Place: My Father's Brain is on the Kitchen Counter by Laura Pritchett

2nd Place: The Last Shower by Leilani Graham

3rd Place: Code Yellow by Kushal Kadakia

Honorable Mentions

Spilling Stardust  by Richard Wu

*** : Meditations of a Medical Oncology Scribe  by Brian Smith

2019 Prize Winners

1st Place: RUNNING MCCOY'S  by Heather Cariou

2nd Place: Time Like Water  by Grace Li

3rd Place: Dark Rides  by Amy Haddad

The Ward is the World  by Laurie Kutchins

2018 Prize Winners

1st Place: Pulseless  by David James Bell

2nd Place: How Fishele Died  by Nathan Szajnberg

3rd Place: Broken  by Lucia Gagliese

Hair  by Joanne Howard

2017 Prize Winners

1st Place: Borderline Disability: A Life Diagnose by Eli Cahan

2nd Place: In Photographs by Dorothy Rice

3rd Place: Under the Bridge by Tyson West

Recommendation by Marissa McNamara

Two Notes by Cassie Myers

2016 Prize Winners

1st Place: Perestroika  by Petr Vitkovskiy

2nd Place: Parlor Talk  by Catherine Wong

3rd place:  Mercy  by Erik Norbie

Submissions Open: November 8, 2023 - January 10, 2024

Medicine & the Muse is pleased to announce an open call for unpublished short stories, essays or poetry addressing patients and providers facing chronic or life limiting illness.

New this year!  Entries will be evaluated within their own genre: poetry, fiction and non-fiction. 

Contest Guidelines Short Stories/Essays/Fiction/Non-fiction: Less than 2500 words Poetry: Less than 50 lines

Dual submissions permitted, if they are in different genres. No more than two submissions. Simultaneous submissions permitted, but please withdraw your piece if it gets published elsewhere. Collections of poems are permitted, but please adhere to the line limit. The submission fee is $35 per entry. There is no charge for students, residents and fellows.

SUBMIT HERE

Submit here (students, residents, fellows).

Submission Deadline January 10, 2024 Winners announced March 29, 2024 (updated)

Judges have Included  Drs. Lucy Kalanithi and Daniel Mason, Stanford physician writers, Dr. Jay Baruch, Brown University Alpert School of Medicine physician writer, Dr. Irène Mathieu, Assistant Director, Program in Health Humanities,  University of Virginia, Grace Li, MD candidate and author, and Executive Director of Stanford Medical Humanities & Arts program, Jacqueline Genovese

Award Total of 3 winners, one from each genre will be awarded a cash prize of $300. 

Honorarium made possible by the generosity of a Stanford Palliative Care benefactor.

Winners will be published in Anastomosis , Stanford University School of Medicine’s humanities and literary journal. 

Open to all. Please share widely. 

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School Competitions And Prizes For Aspiring Medics

Learn about all of the competitions and prizes you can enter at school to boost your Medicine application.

If you’re an aspiring medic at school, you can boost your Medicine application by entering competitions and prizes. Regardless of whether you win or not, you’ll be able to include the experience in your Personal Statement and talk about it at Med School interviews . Here are some Medicine competitions you can enter to be proactive and make your application stand out.

Imperial College London – Science in Medicine School Teams Prize

Imperial College London has three team competitions to choose from:

• The British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Prize – Submissions should focus on a topic with interactions between the cardiovascular system and the nervous system.
• The Lung Prize – Submissions can focus on any aspect of the prevention or treatment of respiratory disease.
• The Scleroderma and Raynaud’s UK Prize – Submissions should focus on promoting the health and wellbeing of individuals with Scleroderma and/or Raynaud’s.

For each competition, the challenge is to design an ePoster. A team can have up to six members (they recommend assembling a team with varied interests) and schools can enter one team per prize.

The top ten shortlisted teams in each contest will be invited to present their ePosters at an online finals event. In each stream, first, second and third prizes of £3,000, £2,000 and £1,000 will be awarded to schools in order to support science-related activities.

Deadline – midnight on 30th June 2023.

University of Cambridge – Robinson College Essay Prize

The Robinson College Essay Prize is open to Year 12 students in the UK, providing an opportunity to develop and showcase independent study and writing skills. It also allows students to experience the type of work that they might be expected to do at Cambridge.

Entrants submit an essay (no more than 2,000 words) answering a question from various options. Last year, one of the possible titles was ‘Can science tell us how we should live?’. Up to three entries can be submitted per school, so you should discuss your application with your school before entering.

Five prizes are awarded, with each winner receiving book tokens to the value of £50. Winners will also be invited to Robinson College for a prize-giving ceremony.

The 2023 prize will open with more info in June.

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Medic Mentor – National Essay Competition

Medic Mentor’s National Essay Competition requires students to write an essay (up to 1,500 words) from the perspective of a medical professional.

There are essay titles available for Medicine, Dentistry , Veterinary Medicine and Allied Health .

For 2023, the essay questions are:

• Medicine – Should the patient be viewed as part of the multidisciplinary team?
• Dentistry – How can the holistic approach minimise periodontal disease in patients?
• Veterinary – What is the importance of a holistic approach when caring for livestock?
• Allied Heath – How can the multidisciplinary team optimise the care of the older person in hospital?

Deadline – midday on 1st May 2023.

Minds Underground Medicine Essay Competition

Minds Underground Medicine Essay Competition is aimed at students in Year 12, but younger students are also welcome to enter, and there are various essay title options to choose from. For the 2023 competition, one of the possible titles was ‘Should all healthcare be free? Discuss.’

The competition is designed to give students an opportunity to engage in research, hone their writing and argumentative skills, and prepare for university interviews. Minds Underground also runs essay competitions for other science subjects like Psychology and STEM.

The submission deadline is typically around March/April. Get more info here.

The Libra Essay Prize

The Libra Essay Prize is for students in Years 12 and 13 who are looking to prepare for university. Inspired by the admissions process at All Souls College, Oxford, entrants write an essay (1,500-2,000 words) responding to a single-word title.

For the 2023 prize, the single-word options were: Control, Collaboration, Exchange, Freedom, Claim.

Entrants are encouraged to use imagination in their essays to build interesting links between their chosen title and their school learning. There are prizes available of £50 for first place, £30 for second place and £20 for third place.

The deadline has varied from year-to-year: it was June in 2022 and April in 2023, so keep an eye on their website for more details.

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Medical Student Essay Award

Description.

Created to honor outstanding academic promise

Tips for Nominations

Submission by student to annual essay contest

Award Benefits for 2024 Award

• Complimentary registration for 2024 AAP Annual Meeting
• Up to $1,000 reimbursement for 2024 Annual Meeting-related travel and meal expenses
• Essay presented as e-poster at 2024 Annual Meeting

2023 1st Place: Brian R. Smith, Stanford University 2nd Place: Isabel Draper, Baylor College of Medicine 3rd Place: Serra Sozen, University of Vermont College of Medicine

2022 1st Place: William Thomas (Tommy) Baumel, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine 2nd Place: Eun Jin (Gloria) Yu, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA 3rd Place: Brittany Perry, University of South Florida College of Medicine

2021 1st Place: Sahana Nazeer, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine 2nd Place: Chloe Malava, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College 3rd Place: Mollie Marr, Oregon Health Sciences University 4th Place: Edward Tie, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

2020 1st Place: Jeff Jin, McGovern Medical School 2nd Place: Nicole Hadler, University of Michigan Medical School 3rd Place: David Jevotovsky, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

2019 Alan Elbaum, University of California - San Francisco

Your award includes complimentary registration for the AAP Annual Meeting, and up to $1,000 reimbursement for meeting-related travel and meal expenses.

The theme is: The Art of Communication in Psychiatry: Connecting with the Patient.

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2024 MEDICAL STUDENT ESSAY CONTEST ARE NOW OPEN.

Submission Requirements The contest is open to any student who is both currently enrolled in an accredited medical school (US, Canada, or anywhere in the world) and will be enrolled at the time of the Annual Meeting September 11 - 14, 2024. The work must be an original unpublished essay of 1,000 words or less . Due to an overwhelming response, ONLY ONE SUBMISSION PER STUDENT WILL BE ACCEPTED.

The top essay may be considered for publication in the Academic Psychiatry Journal in "The Learners' Voice" section. Essay winner does not guarantee publication in the Academic Psychiatry Journal . Please review the publication criteria when writing your essay here . Refer to MANUSCRIPT TYPE & GUIDELINES #8 The Learners' Voice.

Essays should be submitted electronically through the JOYN Awards Portal by clicking the link below. Please include a cover page with the following information:

• Student’s Name
• Name of Medical School where enrolled, year in school
• Mailing Address, Phone Number, Email Address

Selection Criteria

Judges will be blinded to the participant and affiliated medical school. Judging will be based on originality, uniqueness, flow of thought, and appropriateness to the theme.

Thank you for your interest. 

The AAP Abstract and Award Submission Portal for the 2024 Medical Student Essay ARE NOW OPEN. Click here to access the portal.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JUNE 1, 2024

For QUESTIONS ONLY, contact James Haliburton, MD, Medical Student Essay Subcommittee Chair, at [email protected] . All essay submissions must be made through the Award portal.

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Announcing the winners of the 2023 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest

The Arnold P. Gold Foundation is pleased to announce the six winning essays of the  2023 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest : the top three by medical students and the top three by nursing students.

First place is awarded to Federico Erhart of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Courtney Polimeni of Washington State University College of Nursing.

Second place is awarded to Riley Plett of the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and Leah Rothchild of the MGH Institute of Health Professions School of Nursing, and third place goes to Emily Otiso of Wayne State University School of Medicine and Nicole Diddi of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas School of Nursing.

This year’s winning essays tell stories about the power of human connection. They bring the reader into clinics, hospital rooms, and ERs, revealing delicate exchanges between caregivers and patients. They explore how kindness can transcend our differences, and how the smallest of gestures can mean everything in a difficult moment.

“This year’s winning essays are beautiful reflections on our shared humanity,” said Elizabeth Cleek, PsyD, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Gold Foundation. “I am deeply impressed by the winners, not only for their talent on the page, but as clinicians in training who exemplify heart and compassion.”

The winning essays are chosen by an expert panel that includes healthcare professionals, writers/journalists, and educators. More than 530 entries were submitted this year from students at over 90 nursing schools and over 110 medical schools. 2023 marks the sixth year that the contest has included nursing students.

The Gold Foundation has been continuously expanding its programs from its U.S. roots to a global reach, and it is noteworthy that — for the first time — a Canadian student was among the essay winners this year.

The winning essays will be published in two esteemed journals,  Academic Medicine,  in the October, November, and December issues, and  Journal of Professional Nursing , in the September/October, November/December, and January/February issues.  Academic Medicine   is published by the  Association of American Medical Colleges,  and  Journal of Professional Nursing   is published by the   American Association of Colleges of Nursing . Both organizations are key supporters of the annual essay contest and partners of the Gold Foundation.

The essay contest is named for Hope Babette Tang-Goodwin, MD, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, whose devotion and generosity to the care of the children and infants with HIV infection in New York City was an inspiration to her colleagues and her students. Her approach to medicine combined a seemingly limitless enthusiasm for her work, intellectual rigor, and deep compassion for her patients.

The Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest prompts medical and nursing students to engage in a reflective writing exercise that illustrates an experience in which they or a team member worked to ensure humanistic care.

This year, students were prompted to share stories inspired by a quote from U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón in her poem “How Far Away We Are”:

“I want to give you something, or I want to take something from you. But I want to feel the exchange, the warm hand on the shoulder, the song coming out and the ear holding onto it.”

Ada Limón is the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. She is the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying , which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, and was the second host of the critically acclaimed poetry podcast The Slowdown . When announcing her appointment as Poet Laureate in 2022, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden noted that Ms. Limón’s poems “speak of intimate truths, of the beauty and heartbreak that is living, in ways that help us move forward.”

The Gold Foundation congratulates all of this year’s winners and honorable mentions:

2023 Medical/Nursing Student Winners

First Place

“The Nail Salon” Federico Erhart University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

“The Window” Courtney Polimeni Washington State University College of Nursing

Second Place

“I See You” Riley Plett University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine

“The Unspoken Language of Compassion” Leah Rothchild MGH Institute of Health Professions School of Nursing

Third Place

“The Gift of Grief” Emily Otiso Wayne State University School of Medicine

“The Momentum of Human Kindness” Nicole Diddi University of Nevada at Las Vegas

Honorable mentions:

Bradley Firchow, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, “Kneeling Before the Patient: Medicine’s Spirit”

Florita Flores, University of St. Francis-Leach College of Nursing, “My Mission, My Vision, My Story”

Rebekkah  Harper, Baker College Owosso School of Nursing, “Humanism at its Core During Covid”

Priya Nair, Albany Medical College, “Fridays are For a Fresh Start”

Jacqueline Owen, University of Cincinnati College of Nursing, “My Unexpected Journey to Addiction Medicine”

Isabel Plakas, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, “Raining Toads and Snakes”

Maya Sorini, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, “Working Dogs”

Sarah Steffen, Medical College of Wisconsin, “The Soundtrack of Life”

Kimberly Stewart, Ursuline College Breen School of Nursing, “They Gave Themselves”

Tara Tronetti, Drexel University College of Medicine, “Sorry for the mess!”

Bailey Willard, Winona State University-Nursing, “The Very Exchange We Need”

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Jeffrey silver humanism in healthcare research roundup – march-april 2023.

The Jeffrey Silver Humanism in Healthcare Research Roundup features summaries of recently published studies on humanism in healthcare. To receive email notification of new studies once per month, enter your information here and select “Jeffrey Silver Research … chevron_right   Read more

Episode 18: Gold Student Summer Fellowship: Understanding Barriers to Early Antenatal Care in Rural Georgia

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Episode 17: Gold Student Summer Fellowship: Support for people experiencing incarceration and chronic illness in Los Angeles

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Medical Student Prize

The 2024 Medical Student Prize deadline for submissions has now passed

2024 Medical Student Prize

This year medical students are invited to submit an essay on their Quality Improvement Project (QUIP) and how it has equipped them and their department to perform better. The project must have completed at least one round of the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) cycle and can be on any aspect of T&O - from education to patient preparation or adoption of surgical innovation.

The lead author of the winning submission will receive the following:

• BOA-recognised certificate
• £100 prize money
• A ticket for Medical Student's Day at the BOA Annual Congress 2024 in Birmingham
• Travel and one night's accommodation at the BOA Annual Congress 2024 paid for by the BOA

The BOA also wish to recognise the exceptional submissions we receive with a highly commended certificate.

How do I submit my project?

You will be required to submit an application form along with your essay. The essay application form  can be found here; please complete this and send it, along with your essay, to [email protected] . There is a limit of one essay entry per student.

In the application essay form you will be required to confirm: 

“I certify that the attached material is my own work. I also certify that I have formally certified or formally acknowledged the words and ideas of others.”

Am I eligible?

The competition is open to all medical students in the UK or Republic of Ireland. If you have submitted in previous years but you are still a medical student, you are welcome to re-enter the competition for the 2024 prize.

Medical Students from the UK or Republic of Ireland who are studying abroad are not eligible to submit an essay.

Is there a word limit?

The maximum word count for the essay is 1000 words. The essay title and references/figures/tables (including in-text references) are not included in the word count, but any accompanying text i.e. the name of the table if stated above/below it, will be counted in the Word Count. Appendices are not encouraged but maybe used to present relevant additional information referred to in the essay. We usually receive a large number of submissions and the people marking the essays are not expected to read Appendices and therefore these should not be used to display details which are essential to your work.

Can I include graphs or images in my submission?

Does the word count include references and figures, what referencing style shall i use, when is the final deadline, when will the winner be announced, will i receive feedback, who can i contact if i have a problem, past winners.

2023 Sumedh Sridhar, winner of the 2023 Medical Student Essay Prize competition, with his essay ‘Bones, Burnout, and Beyond’: Strategies for Supporting T&O Staff and Patients in a Changing Landscape.  His essay was published on Orthopaedics Online , which you can read here .

2022 Jan Drmota, a final year medical student at Imperial College London, was the winner of the 2022 BOA Medical Student Essay Prize.  His essay was published on Orthopaedics Online in December 2022 which you can read here . 

Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Guidelines for the 2022 Medical Student Essay Contest

Students currently enrolled in a medical school or program are encouraged to submit to Hektoen International ’s 2022 Medical Student Essay Contest. Submissions will be reviewed by the Hektoen International Editorial Staff and a select group of contest judges who will determine the two winners of the following awards:

Grand Prize: Single winner of $3,500 Runner-Up: Single winner of $2,500

Essays can be on any topic as it relates to medicine. Art, history, and literature topics are preferred. Fiction will be accepted. Original poetry and standalone artwork will not be considered (though essays on poetry and on original artwork are welcome). Before submitting an article, please search for your topic to see that it has not been fully covered already. For possible topic categories, see our Sections .

To enter, you must be:

• Currently enrolled in medical school or can verify your acceptance into medical school,
• Currently serving as a medical intern or resident, or
• Currently serving as a fellow to pursue a medical specialty.

Essays should be under 1,200 words. The deadline is March 15, 2023, at 12 PM (noon) CST.  The contest is now closed.  Late submissions will not be considered. Contest submissions should be sent to  [email protected] or via the form below . Participants must certify that their work is original. Participants must have copyright ownership or permission to use any images submitted. 

• The contest is open to participants currently enrolled in a medical school or program as described above. Educational status (including the name of your school) must be specified in your cover page/bio in order for entries to be eligible.
• Submission of an article implies consent to publish in  Hektoen International.  If accepted for publication, an article may be published at any time regardless of the outcome of the competition. If major edits are made, proofs will be sent to the author before publication.
• Inquiries about the contest should be sent to [email protected] .
• Single-author essays only; multiple authors on one article are not allowed.
• Entries must be written in English and follow our article guidelines, including a cover page and proper formatting of both text and illustrations. Incomplete submissions may be deemed ineligible for consideration in the contest.
• Submissions will be read by Hektoen International ’s editors and contest judges. They will review contributions for appropriateness, originality, style, and content.
• Submissions are processed on weekdays during business hours. Please check your email for confirmation of your submission. Please wait one week before inquiring about the reception of your article if you do not receive a confirmation email.
• The winners of the contest will be announced by email in 2023. Winning articles may be published in a 2023 issue of  Hektoen International .
• All submissions selected for online publication will appear in Hektoen International and will be placed into a corresponding  Section . Published articles may also be highlighted in Frontispiece —our front page—and/or in the various themes of  Hektorama .
• Articles and the images within them may also be publicized via our newsletter , which is currently received by 40,000+ subscribers, and on our Twitter ,  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  LinkedIn .

Articles must be unpublished, original work, saved as a Word document by the author’s last name followed by the title (or abbreviated title). For example, the article “Big Hugh” by Dr. Smith, should be saved as Smith_Big Hugh.docx . Each submission should include:

• A cover page with:
• Author’s name, titles/degrees, professional affiliation, contact information and location (as you would like it listed in the journal)
• A biography no longer than 100 words, written in the third person, that includes your current educational status and future educational/career goals. See the bottom of our articles for examples.
• Submissions must also have the following formatting:
• The title and page numbers in the document header
• The full text of the article in Times New Roman, size 12, and double-spaced. Please format according to the Chicago Manual of Style 17 th Edition ( chicagomanualofstyle.org ) or the American Medical Association Manual of Style 11 th Edition ( academic.oup.com/amamanualofstyle/book/27941 )
• References for quoted and cited material formatted according to Vancouver, Chicago, or AMA style, with the endnotes in numerical order.

Articles may include images. If you provide an image, please review and heed the guidelines below before you contact us with any questions, which we encourage.

• Final image choice will be determined by journal staff.
• Rights to use and publish images in  Hektoen International must be acquired by the author  prior to submission , either via a source’s declaration the images are in the public domain or under a Creative Commons or similar license, or by obtaining permission from the copyright holder(s) of the images. For more information, see https://guides.library.stonybrook.edu/copyright/public-domain or contact us at [email protected] .
• Images must be high quality and saved as a .JPG
• Images must be titled by author’s surname and short article name. For example, an image to accompany the article “Big Hugh” by Dr. Smith would be saved as Smith_Big Hugh.jpg . Add a number at the end to distinguish additional images ( e.g., Smith_Big Hugh2.jpg ).
• Images must be accompanied by a caption. In a separate Word document entitled “Caption” with the following information:
• Caption, source, and permission/copyright/licensing information (including the address of the website where you found the image)
• For artwork, please provide the title and date of work, the artist’s name, and the location of the artwork (museum or private collection)
• Save the caption as a Word document by author last name. In the example of Dr. Smith, the illustration would be captioned as Smith_Caption.docx .
• Caption example:   Spock Behind G.W. Library . Photo by Warren K. Leffler, October 15, 1969. U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress . No known restrictions on publication.

General Guidelines for All Submissions

We DO NOT accept clinical studies All submissions should be the stated author/artist’s original work Authors are responsible for obtaining publication rights for accompanying images

Patient Consent/Confidentiality

Our confidentiality policy is based on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Please refer to this document if you have any questions:  https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/ . Authors/artists should protect the confidentiality of all persons and not reveal personal details without their consent.

Copyright (©) and Plagiarism

Authors retain the copyright to their submissions to  Hektoen International . We request, however, that authors refrain from submitting their work for publication for four months after the piece has been published. Authors are requested to notify us and reference the  Hektoen International  website as the original publisher in subsequent publications of the article.

By submitting your work to us via Forminator or by email for consideration for publication, you consent to the scanning of your work by third-party plagiarism checker programs along with, on a case-by-case basis, research by our staff of your publication history to ensure the work published in our journal is original. By performing these checks, we protect our reputation as well as your own.

Plagiarism is, in its simplest wording, claiming someone else’s work as your own. When you submit work or portions of a work that you yourself did not write, without giving credit to its original author, that is plagiarism. Plagiarism ranges from copying another’s entire publication to rewording portions and ideas from another’s publication without a citation.

We also acknowledge the concept of self-plagiarism, in which you republish work you have already written without permission from the copyright holder. Examples of self-plagiarism include you submit an article to us that was already published in another journal without that journal’s permission; you draw information and/or concepts from an article you wrote that is already published elsewhere without citing that article in your submission.​

Form temporarily unavailable—please submit to [email protected] . If you submitted between January 24 and February 24, please resubmit.

Submissions are processed on weekdays during business hours. Please check your email for confirmation of your submission. Please also wait one week before inquiring about missing submissions through this form or resubmitting.

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Medical School Expert

Medicine Essay Prizes (7 Competitions For Year 12 and 13’s)

Every article is fact-checked by a medical professional. However, inaccuracies may still persist.

Having a medical essay prize on your CV looks absolutely fantastic when it comes time for you to apply to medical school.

In such an overcrowded marketplace, anything that sets you apart from the crowd in a positive manner is sure to drastically increase your chances of getting an offer.

Although when I was applying to medical school I hadn’t managed to win an essay competition (despite my best efforts!) hopefully you’ll have more luck than me!

To save you some research time, I’ve compiled a list of 7 medicine essay competitions that you can enter this year.

Competitions that if you win will skyrocket your chances of application success.

INCLUDED IN THIS GUIDE:

The Libra Essay Prize

The Libra essay prize is an annual essay prize for all students in years 12 and 13 looking to prepare for university.

Libra Education themselves describe it as:

“An excellent way for 6th-form students to demonstrate that they have the makings of a scholar, the Libra Essay Prize offers a chance to prepare for the academic rigour required by university assignments and provides a great accomplishment to discuss on a personal statement or at an interview.”

Students are free to choose any subject from a list of categories (one of which being science) and then have to write an essay with a title containing a chosen word.

The small pool of words you can choose from change each year but are all generally quite abstract so you can connect and use them in creative ways.

The essay has to be between 1,500 – 2,000 words, with Harvard style referencing which isn’t included in the word count.

Libra accept entries from all over the world, but the essays must be written in English.

First prize wins £50, second prize £30, and third £20, all paid out in book vouchers. There’s also Commended and Highly Commended entries for each category.

Minds Underground Essay Competition

Minds Underground is an online learning platform, designed to support and enhance the learning and problem-solving of determined young students.

Every year they run a medicine essay competition, primarily aimed at year 12’s (although they do say younger or older students are also welcome to apply).

To enter, you have a choice of three questions, to which you need to write a 1,000 – 1,500 word answer.

“Should all healthcare be free? Discuss.” “What goes wrong for cancers to develop?” “Tell us about a key development/invention that you think has been most influential to medicine.” – Past Minds Underground medicine essay questions

If you’re feeling ambitious, students are permitted to enter an essay for more than one subject- so you could have a crack at the psychology or science one too!

Helpfully, under each question Minds also give you a few pointers to get your creative juices flowing.

Newnham Essay Prizes

Newnham College of the University of Cambridge runs a medicine essay competition with a twist:

Only female students are allowed to enter.

Again, students have a choice of three differing questions.

For example, the questions in the 2021-22 competition were:

• How realistic is it to develop a small molecule therapy for Covid-19? Could such a therapy be rolled out in a timeframe that it could have an impact on the current pandemic?
• Sleep deprivation in clinical health settings. Does it matter?
• Looking to the future. Will stem cell therapies be outpaced by machine-brain interfaces for the treatment of retinal disease?

Newnham do give you a bit more of a range when it comes to the word count, accepting anything from 1,500 to 2,500 words.

There’s a generous £400 prize for first place, £200 for second and £100 for third.

Unfortunately for you as an individual though, prize money is split 50:50 between the essay prize winner and the funding of resources for their school…

John Locke Institute Essay Competition

“The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. “

The John Locke Institute arguably gives away the most generous prize out of any competition on this list.

You get a scholarship worth $2,000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute program, as well as an invitation to their prize-giving ceremony in Oxford.

The essay questions for each subject are published in January, with the deadline for submission generally being in late June.

As well as the opportunity to secure the prize for medicine, the candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship- which comes with a $10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of their courses!

American Society Of Human Genetics Essay Contest

Although this next essay competition comes from America, it’s open to students worldwide.

The American Society Of Human Genetics supports national DNA day through its annual DNA day essay contest: commemorating the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003 and the discovery of the double helix of DNA in 1953.

The contest is open to students in grades 9-12 worldwide and asks students to “examine, question, and reflect on important concepts in genetics.”

With a limit of only 750 words, not including reference lists, this is a short but sweet chance to bag yourself a considerable cash prize for your efforts.

In addition to the personal prize money, the ASHG will also provide you with a $1,000 grant towards genetics research or teaching materials.

Although it is a worldwide contest, so undoubtedly will have plenty of entries, there are also 10 honorable mentions up for grabs (in addition to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place) that all come with a $100 prize too.

Immerse Education Essay Competition

Immerse Education run summer programs for over 20 different subjects in Oxford, Cambridge, London and Sydney.

The reason why students get so much value from these courses is because they’re immersed in centers of academic excellence whilst learning from experts in their chosen field.

The good news for you is that their essay competition gives you the chance to attend one of their summer school programs for free.

10 winners receive a 100% scholarship and runners up are awarded partial scholarships of up to 50% to study their chosen subject.

According to Immerse, around 7% of entrants receive scholarship funding to attend a program- which is pretty good odds if you ask me!

“There is no downside to entering the competition. If you win, it is awesome. If you don’t win, you gained an experience. Entering the competition and working as hard as I did for it was one of the most gratifying experiences.” – Pedro L (100% scholarship winner)

You can find the full list of essay questions, in addition to top tips for writing academic essays (as well as the terms and conditions for the competition), simply by signing up via Immerse’s website.

The RCSU Science Challenge

The Royal College of Science Union (RCSU) is a student union at Imperial College London and run an annual science challenge open to both home and international school students.

The focus of the challenge is communicating scientific concepts in a non-technical manner, so that people without a science background could still understand and enjoy the content.

The big twist with this essay competition is that you don’t actually have to enter an essay!

The idea is to produce a ‘short piece of science communication’ which can be an essay or can be a short video in answer to one of the four questions set by the judges.

Written entries must be less than 1,000 words, whilst video entries must be less than 3 minutes and 30 seconds long.

For this competition, it’s really all about short and snappy responses that will captivate the reader whilst answering the question in a precise but easy to understand manner.

We hope to inspire those who take part in the Science Challenge to explore, develop and use their scientific skills along with their passion for their corner of science to help others see what all the excitement is about.

Why You Should Enter Medicine Essay Competitions

I think it’s fair to say that competition to get into medical school in the UK is insanely high- and it’s only getting worse.

With such large numbers of incredibly qualified candidates, medical schools have to find some way of differentiating them.

One way to make it easy for a university to pick you is to stand out from the crowd by having a medical essay prize on your application.

An essay prize demonstrates your dedication to the subject, scientific knowledge and an ability to write expressively and persuasively- all ideal qualities when it comes to being a doctor.

You may surprise yourself.

Often, not as many people as you might think enter these competitions.

Simply by writing the essay, you’re also going to greatly increase your knowledge about that particular topic, which can still come in really handy at interview.

Even if you don’t win, just discussing the fact you entered still looks good in the eyes of an interviewer.

It shows that you’re willing to go above and beyond your school curriculum, to explore subjects you’re interested in and that you’re a highly motivated candidate.

How To Increase Your Chances Of Winning An Essay Prize

Although when I was applying to medical school I didn’t manage to win an essay prize, there are a couple of things I did that would have greatly increased my chances of doing so.

First and foremost, I think you’ve got to cast your net wide.

Don’t limit yourself to just one shot at the target: if you’ve got the time then I’d recommend trying to enter at least a couple of different competitions.

More entries will mean more chances for you to have your essay officially recognised.

Secondly, if you have the choice between entering a local or national competition, I’d always go with the local one.

Although a national prize would look slightly better on your CV, simply due to the number of entries, you’ll have a much higher chance of winning the more local competition.

By local I mean this could be a more regional charity, nearby hospital or university, or even your school.

Even better yet, you could always enter both!

Lastly, I think one of the best ways you can increase your odds of winning a prize is by entering a competition around a topic that you’re genuinely passionate about.

If you’ve no interest in genetics, then I wouldn’t enter the American Society Of Human Genetics’ contest!

Your interest in the subject will come through in your language, depth of knowledge and motivation to go above and beyond for your essay- all of which will put you in a much better position for winning.

Where You Can Find Further Essay Competitions

In addition to the essay prizes described above, there are tonnes of other opportunities available for you to distinguish yourself as a medicine applicant.

Loads of the Royal Colleges run an ever changing variety of prizes and competitions, usually to encourage interest in their specialty.

The opening dates and deadlines for these prizes are always changing so it’s worth keeping an eye out for the perfect essay question or new prize that’s just been announced.

Some of these organisations that run their own competitions include:

• The Royal Society of Medicine
• Royal College of Emergency Medicine
• British Orthopaedic Association
• British Society for Haematology
• Royal College of Pathologists
• Royal College of Psychiatrists
• British Association of Dermatologists

But there are many more out there. If you have a particular interest in one specialty or area of science then I’d definitely recommend doing a bit of digging to see if there’s a society or organisation related to that field that runs their own competitions!

Final Thoughts

There really aren’t many downsides to entering one of these competitions.

You get a shot at winning, gain a talking point at interview and develop your scientific knowledge (not to mention technical writing skills).

Although you might feel that some of the smaller prizes aren’t worth your time and effort to write the essay, the real value comes from the boost one of these prizes would give your medicine application.

What UCAT Score Is Needed For Medicine? (UK Specific)

Best Podcasts For Medicine Applicants (11 Must Listen Shows)

Convert your interviews into offers

Learn the best ways of turning your upcoming interviews into medicine offers here.

© 2024 Medical School Expert Ltd

Prizes for students

The RSM has numerous prizes and awards aimed at students. By submitting an application, you will have the chance to present at a meeting, add to your CV and open up more career opportunities.

Please note this page is updated regularly.

All submissions must be sent in by 11.59pm on the stated deadline date.

Generally prizes, awards or travel grants must be claimed before the end of the academic year in which they are gained (30 September).

For more information or help please contact [email protected]

Dermatology

Dermatology Section: Hugh Wallace Essay Prize

Submission deadline : Thursday 25 April 2024

Open to : Dermatology registrars

Prize : £250

General Practice with Primary Healthcare

John Fry prize

Deadline:   Thursday 1 August 2024

Open to:   Medical, nursing and allied healthcare students with an interest in general practice and primary care

Ophthalmology

Ophthalmology Section: Travelling Fellowship Bursary

Submission deadline : Wednesday 1 May 2024 

Open to : British based ophthalmologists travelling abroad and foreign ophthalmologists travelling to the UK

Prize : Bursaries can be submitted up to the value of £1,000

Ophthalmology Section: Students and Trainees Prize

Submission deadline : Thursday 11 April 2024 

Open to : Medical students and doctors in training

Prize : Best Poster: £150, Best Paper: £150 and one year's membership to the Royal Society of Medicine.

BSHNI annual oral presentation

Submission deadline: Sunday 12 May 2024

Open to: All delegates. The presenting author should register for the meeting and  will receive a complimentary conference dinner invitation.

Students Section: Doubleday Prize

Submission Deadline: Friday 21 June 2024

Open to: Medical Students attending UK Medical Schools

Student section: Tomorrow's Doctors Conference Poster Prize 2024

Open to: Medical Students, entrants must register for the Tomorrow's Doctors Conference to be considered

Student section: Tomorrow's Doctors Conference Oral Presentations 2024

Venous Forum: Annual Meeting Prize

Submission deadline : Thursday 11 April 2024

Open to : Medical students and trainees

Prize : Oral: 1st: £250; 2nd: £200; 3rd: £150, Poster: £200

"It’s a great privilege for our team to have been recognised by this prestigious award from the RSM Surgery Section and reflects the dedicated work behind this exciting innovation."

See more from prizes and awards  or hear from  previous prize winners.

Kilsby student essay competition

We are listening to the voice of the next generation of healthcare professionals..

The BHMA runs an annual student essay competition to broadcast the voice of the best and most innovative thinking from those about to embark on a career in healthcare. We want your fresh insight and opinion on how to transform the health service into a more compassionate and caring version of its current self.

Our title for 2024 (BHMA’s 40th Anniversary):

‘Holistic Healthcare in Action: Reflections on the Past, Directions for the Future’ 

Please use 2 or 3 examples to illustrate your answer.

Essay option:

Essay of 1000-1500 words.

Creative Inquiry option:

The assignment should be in the form of a creative text (please submit photographs/DVD/music file as appropriate) alongside a written reflection of up to 1000 words. Marks will be allocated in four categories: Impact, Perception, Aesthetics and Reflection.

Please complete the form below along with your submission

Deadline June 30th

FIRST PRIZE – Essay and Creative Enquiry

• Your essay published in our journal and online
• Ticket to our conference & awards reception
• Free membership to the BHMA or free journal subscription for 1 year
• Your essay published online

For just £17 per annum, your student membership enables you to access our entire online library of the Journal of Holistic Healthcare plus 10-20% discounts on selected events, courses and other membership packages.

JHH 20.3 Journeys into Medicine

Journeys Into Medicine

Health Creation and Creative Health

Holism and Medical Education

What’s missing from medical education?

Embodiment and bodywork

Integrative Medicine

Shifting the paradigm

Frontiers of self-care

Flourishing in Medical Education

Beyond COVID

Mind-body self-care

Stories in medicine

The Real Food Issue

Faith, hope and love in healthcare

Nature Connections

Social Prescribing

Healing Journeys

Transformative innovation in healthcare

Men’s Health

Women’s Health

Children’s Health

Saving the NHS

Nutrition and Lifestyle

Shaping the invisible

Become an  Ambassador

How can a holistic perspective benefit practitioners, patients, and the planet? First Prize Essay

How can a holistic perspective benefit practitioners, patients, and the planet first prize creative enquiry, previous winners & runners-up.

Note that we have recently started publishing winners and a few other choice essays as blog posts. These appear in the side bar above.

2023: Sayed Adam Bukhari , King’s College London, How can a holistic perspective benefit practitioners, patients, and the planet?

2023: Felicity Smith , Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Arts and Crafts in Healthcare: What William Morris can Teach us About the Benefits of a Holistic Perspective for Practitioners, Patients and the Planet

2023: Kate Eustace , University College Dublin, How can a holistic perspective benefit practitioners, patients, and the planet?

2023: Alton Ajay Mathew , Medical University of Lodz, How can a holistic perspective benefit practitioners, patients, and the planet?

2022: Jonathan De Oliveira , St. George’s, University of London ‘What is missing in our clinical education’?

2022: Karla Hamlet , Canterbury Christ Church University – Creative Enquiry ‘What is missing in our clinical education?’ – The Student Voice

2022: Hamaad Khan , University College London ‘What is missing in our clinical education?’

2022: Lucy Butterfield , University of Manchester – Creative Enquiry ‘What is missing in our clinical education?’

2022: Andrew Zhou , University of Cambridge – Creative Enquiry ‘What is missing in our clinical education?’

2022: Pervana Kaur , University of Karol Marnkowski ‘What is missing in our clinical education?’

2021: Deeya Kotecha , Cambridge ‘ How can holistic healthcare influence health inequalities ‘

2021: Jabin Chowdhury , Birmingham ‘ If holistic healthcare is the answer what is the question? A take on healthcare inequality ‘

2021: Annie McKirgan , Liverpool ‘ All Animals are Equal … Or are They? ‘

2020: Lauren Wheeler, Imperial College London Faculty of Medicine ‘Holistic lessons from a pandemic…prevention is better than cure’

2020: Isabel Allison, University of Birmingham ‘Holistic lessons from a pandemic’

2020: Megan, University of Southampton: ‘Holistic lessons from a pandemic: Does anyone have a spare pen?’

2020: Simran , University of Southampton ‘Holistic Lessons from a pandemic: ‘All Lives Can’t Truly Matter Until Black Lives Matter’ ‘

2019: Jessica Frost Birmingham Medical School Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food

2019: Aaron Morjaria King’s College, London Is food the foundation for good health?

2019: Josephine Elliot University College, London Is food the foundation for good health?

2018: Thomas Christie Templeton College, Oxford Social Prescribing – are drugs or people the better cure?

2017: Fiona Field Imperial College London Re-imagining healthcare – in partnership with nature

2017: James Bevan University of Southampton Re-imagining healthcare – in partnership with nature

2017: Maddie Leadon University of Cambridge Re-imagining healthcare – in partnership with nature

2016: Robbie Newman Imperial College London Are we medicalising human experience? A radical review

2016: Alice Redfern University of Oxford Are we medicalising human experience? A radical review

2016: Vinay Mandagere University of Bristol Diagnosis: Are we medicalising human experience? A radical review

2015 Julius Kremling Germany, Why connection matters: Understanding patients’ illness by understanding their reality

2015: Tamar Witztum University of Bristol, Resilience in holistic care: Learning from Alice Herz-Sommer

2015: Lucy Brenner Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Cultivating compassion – students to lead the way?

2015: Eleanor Tanner University of Birmingham The Star of Compassion

2014: Olivia Sjökvist University of Hull, Coping with your own vulnerability in caring for a person who has a long-term condition

2014: Laura Clapham King’s College, London Coping with your own vulnerability in caring for a person who has a long-term condition

2014: Chiara Catterwell-Sinkeldam, King’s College London Coping with your own vulnerability in caring for a person who has a long-term condition

2013 Kundan Iqbal The importance of holism in medical care today and ways this can be promoted

2012 Reanne Jones Tears of Joy, tears of sorrow

2011 Thea Collins 2030: What made the NHS sustainable?

2010 Jason Ferdjani Improving global well being, improving personal well being

2009 Krishna Steedhar Student’s health matters

2008 Phoebe Votolato Being a Medical student

2007 Lewis Morgan A good holistic practitioner

Previous winners came from:

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Wylie Undergraduate Essay Prize

Grants, awards and prizes, barema & association environment & sustainability award for anaesthesia.

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Join this supportive and influential community and get access to a range of benefits and services

Applications for the Wylie Undergraduate Essay Medal 2024 were welcomed on the topic  How does a 'well' workforce benefit patient safety?  Essays must be written by an undergraduate medical student at a university in Great Britain or Ireland. The overall winner will receive the Wylie Medal in memory of Dr W Derek Wylie, President of the Association 1980-82.

Applications were invited from medical students studying in Great Britain and Ireland (subject to confirmation of eligibility).

• All applicants should be the sole author of their essay.
• The word limit is 1,000 words (excluding references and headings).
• Some essays may be published online or in Anaesthesia News , depending on their suitability and at the discretion of the Association. All essay submissions will be subject to a plagiarism check and the results will be considered as part of the judging process.
• All submissions will be blinded to reviewers. Author names and contact information should not be included on the submitted essay.

Deadline for submission was 23:59 on Wednesday 7 February 2024.

Submitters will be informed of the outcome of their submission in early April 2024.

Miss Jade Miller and Miss Sarah-Louise Watson were jointly awarded the 2023 Wylie Undergraduate Essay Prize for their essays entitled  How can we address the gender gap in anaesthesia, as well as medicine in general? Both essays will be published in Anaesthesia News.

You might also be interested in:

Anaesthesia news.

Read the latest news and views in the world of anaesthesia, or browse back copies.

There are a variety of grants, awards and prizes you can apply for

Representing the medical and political views

Of over 10,000 anaesthetists in the uk, ireland and internationally.

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Medical Council of New South Wales

Medical students

As a NSW medical student, you might be surprised to learn the NSW Medical Council already regulates your conduct and health - even before you become a doctor. So, what do we do, and when might you come in contact with us? 

First and foremost, our job as the regulator of the NSW medical profession is to protect patient safety. It is our paramount concern.

Essay competition 2023

The NSW Medical Council holds an annual short essay prize for medical students currently studying in NSW. Entry is free, with the winning entry awarded a $1500 gift card and the runner-up a $500 gift card. Winning entries are published on the Medical Council website and shared with NSW medical students and the NSW medical profession via Council newsletters and online channels. 

Essay question 2023

Research suggests many medical students and doctors in Australia do not have their own doctor. Explore the reasons behind this and the impact this might have on students /doctors and on patient care and safety. What strategies would help address this issue and why?

2023 essay winners announced!

Congratulations to Callum Fraser, a year 5 medical student from the University of Western Sydney (first prize), and Dylan Foskett a year 2 medical student from Macquarie University (runner-up).

Read Callum’s reflections on this year’s theme and his essay White coat tension – doctors and the patient role .

Read Dylan’s reflections on this year’s theme and his essay A taste of our own medicine.

Judges comments : There were a record number of entries with every NSW medical school represented. The quality of the essays was of a high standard with students exploring the solutions and barriers to self-care within the medical profession with nuance, originality and intelligence.  The judges congratulate every student who entered and who embraced and reflected on this important issue.

Read essays from our previous winners

Read entries from our essay winners and runners up  Jessie ,  Ho Yun  and  Vivien  in 2022 which explored the ethical and professional challenges that can arise for medical students and doctors when using social media.

Who are the regulators?

It can be confusing! Health practitioner laws apply nationally and  overseen by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra)  and individual professional boards (such as the Medical Board of Australia). Uniquely, in New South Wales, the Medical Council of NSW and the independent NSW Health Care Complaints Commission have joint regulatory responsibility for ensuring the public is protected by responding to concerns about individual doctors practising in NSW and medical students (health and conduct) who are studying in NSW.  

As a medical student currently studying in NSW Australia, your details are registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. This is facilitated by the  NSW medical school you are registered with.   

In a nutshell, the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) and the Medical Council co-regulate and manage complaints about individual medical practitioners and medical students in NSW. The HCCC also manages complaints about other health practitioners, unregistered practitioners and institutions. 

While Ahpra manages complaints in most other states, their role in NSW relates to complaints about advertisement of medical services and registering students and practitioners.  

For a more in-depth exploration of how the puzzle pieces fit together, check out our podcast on this topic or this explainer .  

What does it mean to be regulated?

It is expected that the medical profession will ensure patients’ safety and is generally held in high esteem by the public. Part of the Medical Council’s role is to ensure that this continues to be the case. Without public trust, doctors wouldn’t be able to undertake their role effectively.  

Those are the key drivers for regulating the health and conduct of medical students. You’ll be relieved to hear that no one is following you around with a clipboard grading you and that it’s not a pass/fail test. However, conduct can include issues of communication, professionalism, illicit drug taking, being drunk while working with patients, allegations of family violence and more. 

Should a complaint be made about a student’s conduct, it is reasonable to expect that the Medical Council will seek further information and take this information to a committee who may decide to: 

- take no further action  - send a letter to the student with advice  - direct the student to a conduct or counselling interview   - take urgent action against a student, that may temporarily prevent them from studying  - refer the complaint on. 

While this can be confronting to read, the numbers of complaints about medical students are extremely small. 

It is important to highlight that the Medical Council does not regulate medical students’ performance. This is entirely the remit of universities and students’ supervisors.

Is this over and above the Code of Conduct I signed at university?  

Yes. In learning to be a doctor you are required to meet certain professional responsibilities and expectations. These arise from your increasing involvement with patients, families and the wider community as your learning progresses on your way to becoming a doctor. Doctors, including student doctors, should be strongly guided by the Medical Board of Australia’s Good Medical Practice: A Code of Conduct for Doctors in Australia.  

The importance of self-care

There’s plenty of research indicating that healthier doctors = healthier patients . Whilst many students recognise this and the importance of having their own doctor , there’s no doubt the demands on students and interns are intense. Acknowledging the culture of medicine and the importance of doctors’ health, the Medical Council spoke with Dr Leanne Rowe on how to maintain your health. In our podcast Dr Rowe provides realistic tips, doctor to doctor, that may help you avoid burnout and impairment. 

Any student or doctor who is referred to the Medical Council as a result of a notification relating to health impairment is supported around their health needs with the aim of helping them return to study and/or clinical training as soon as possible. The Medical Council is focused on helping ensure students who are impaired address and remediate any health problems so that they can continue their studies and become successful and skilled doctors in future. 

Resources: 

See our articles in our doctors' health area in the Good Practice section of our website.It includes articles on self-care, why doctors need their own doctor, burnout.

See also our recent articles on health impairment  and role of medical regulators such as the Medical Council:

Building a culture of care - separating fact from fear in mandatory notifications  

10 things you need to know about mandatory notification

Black Dog Insitute  FAQs for mandatory reporting and confidentiality

Avant has a useful guide for students and work life balance:   https://www.avant.org.au/member-benefits/doctors-health-and-wellbeing/your-health/work-life-balance/medical-student-health-priorities/    

What does mandatory reporting mean for me?

It’s no secret that medical students are typically ‘Type A’ personalities, goal focused and competitive. This also makes you more susceptible to worry (reference). So, before you listen to the rumour mill, there are a few things we would really like to clarify! 

Our sources indicate that the elephant in the room continues to be mandatory reporting. Let’s tackle that head on. Yes, there are mandatory reporting laws that mean practitioners have an obligation to make a report to the Medical Council if you are a risk to yourself or the public. However, the reality is that most students with managed health conditions will never need to be subject to such a report. Remember, less than 1% of students will come to the attention of the Medical Council for health conditions. 

This includes mental health conditions. We’re often approached with questions such as “I’m asking for a friend, but if my friend is studying medicine and takes antidepressants, do they need to be worried that their treating doctor will make a mandatory report?”. In most cases, the unequivocal answer is no.  

Many students and medical practitioners have underlying health conditions, including mental health conditions, that are well managed and do not need to be reported to the Medical Council. Generally speaking, these students engage positively and regularly with their treating practitioners and seek additional assistance rather than trying to conceal their health issues. 

There are two concerns that may trigger a mandatory notification about a student – an impairment that places the public at substantial risk of harm or concerns about sexual boundary crossing. A mandatory notification about a student must also be based upon a reasonable belief that an incident or behaviour occurred. 

What am I obliged to tell you?  Students are required by law to notify the Medical Council of NSW within seven days if they have been charged with an offence that carries 12 months or more imprisonment. This may include but isn’t limited to drink driving, breach of Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders (ADVOs) or drugs charges. Ignorance is unfortunately not a defence, so if you are charged, please contact your medical indemnity insurer or medical school for advice.  

Common pitfalls

As medical students and future doctors your activity on social media areas can have long-lasting effect. While there is no hard and fast rules health professional  regulators recognise that medical students are people too, there are guidelines in place to avoid putting yourself in a difficult position. The Medical Board of Australia’s Good Medical Practice: A Code of Conduct in Australia provides a good guide around many issues such as these.   

It is also important to have your own regular doctor encourage peers and colleagues to have their own doctor . If you need a doctor who may be particularly sympathetic to the demands of the profession, please visit the AMA Doctors for Colleagues page for recommendations. 

Reaching out

Do you influence the curriculum at medical school?    Strictly, no. However, we do partner with most NSW universities to deliver guest lectures on medical regulation, impairment and self-care, primarily in the first and fourth years. However, medical students are the cornerstone of the profession, and we would encourage you to raise any questions you may have about medical regulation via your MedSoc first. If they can’t answer these, please escalate them to your NSW Medical Students’ Council (NSWMSC) Executive team. And if that doesn’t get you an answer, the NSWMSC has some key contacts here at the Medical Council who can help you. 

What do I do if I get a complaint while I’m a student? 

You may find that a complaint is made about you whilst you are working as a student. It’s important to note that these complaints are rare and can only be about your conduct or health. Your clinical performance is the domain of your university.  

In the unlikely event a complaint is made, it is critical to contact your medical indemnity insurer straight away, to document the circumstances and seek their advice on your next steps. Should the complaint be received by the Medical Council, you will receive a letter outlining the details of the complaint and seeking more information. The Council will await your response before deciding what the best course of action may be. This is assessed on the risk to the public and may include placing conditions on your registration as a student.  

The Doctors’ Health Advisory Service (DHAS) are available 24/7 and are staffed by doctors who can assist, provide counselling and support during this process, but also any time in your career. 

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• Medical Students

ISU Medical Student Essay Competition 2023

Title: “avoiding disasters in urology”.

Extended Closing date: 31st July 2023 

Entries to be submitted to [email protected]

The prize for winner of the national competition will be a 200 euro travel voucher from RCSI and the winner will be presented with their prize at the ISU 2023 Annual Conference. ISU will offer guest registration and accommodation for the meeting.

Entry Criteria

To enter the competition, authors must be medical students enrolled in a medical school located in the Republic of Ireland at the closing date – see above. Students attending a medical school in overseas countries will not be eligible to submit an entry.

• –  Word limit: 1500 words (maximum) excluding title, abstract (no more than 200 words) and references. The word count includes words used in figures & figure captions, tables, appendices, footers and in-text citations.
• –  Essays should include an abstract/summary (no more than 200 words) – see above
• –  Any references should be in the Harvard style; there is no limit on the number of references
• –  All text must be in Arial font, size 11 and double spaced
• –  Diagrams and tables are acceptable but should not number greater than 5 in total
• –  The essay should preferably be divided into appropriately headed subsections and include a concluding paragraph
• –  Only one essay per student can be submitted
• –  The essay must be the work of one individual student – co-authoring is not permitted

–  All essays must be submitted in Word format, (not pdf). Please save your essay in the form ‘Surname.doc’ (eg Smith.doc).

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Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest

Students      >      Essay Contests      >     Atlas Shrugged

✓    Open to all high school, college, and graduate students worldwide.

Annual Grand Prize

June 14, 2024

Summer Entry Deadline

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Fill out the contact form below, and we’ll email you with more information about this year’s contest—including instructions on how to enter.

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What is Atlas Shrugged?

The astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world—and did.

Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is unlike any other book you have ever read. It is a mystery story, not about the murder of a man’s body, but about the murder—and rebirth—of man’s spirit.

How It Works

Every three months there is a new seasonal entry round, with its own unique essay prompt. You may compete in any or all of these entry rounds.

The top three essays from each season will be awarded a cash prize. The first-place essay from each season will advance to compete for the annual grand prize.

The first-place essay from each season will be eligible to contend for the annual first-place title, with the opportunity to secure a grand prize of $25,000.

Challenging Essay Topics

Each entry round features a unique topic designed to provoke a deeper understanding of the book’s central themes and characters.

Essays must be written in English only and be between 800 and 1,600 words in length.

Questions? Write to us at [email protected] .

• Summer Prompt
• Fall Prompt
• Winter Prompt

The essay prompt for our fall entry period has not yet been determined. We will post it here as soon it’s available.

The essay prompt for our winter entry period has not yet been determined. We will post it here as soon it’s available.

Grand Prize

Master our grading standards.

Essays are judged on whether the student is able to justify and argue for his or her view, not on whether the Institute agrees with the view the student expresses. 

Our graders look for writing that is clear, articulate, and logically organized.  Essays should stay on topic, address all parts of the selected prompt, and interrelate the ideas and events in the novel. 

Winning essays must demonstrate an outstanding grasp of the philosophic meaning of Atlas Shrugged .

Organization

Understanding, contest timeline, discover the power of atlas shrugged.

Atlas Shrugged  is a mystery novel like no other. You enter a world where scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, and inventors are inexplicably vanishing—where the world is crumbling.

And what you discover, by the end, is an uplifting vision of life, an inspiring cast of heroes, and a challenging new way to think about life’s most important issues.

Learn more and request a free digital copy of the book today.

Learn from Past Winners

Curious to know what makes for a winning essay in the Atlas Shrugged   contest? Check out some of the essays written by our most recent grand-prize winners. 

To varying degrees, they all display an excellent grasp of the philosophic meaning of Atlas Shrugged .

Click here to see the full list of 2022 contest winners.

Jacob Fisher

Graduate Student

Stanford University

Stanford, California

United States

Mariah Williams

Regis University

Denver, Colorado

Nathaniel Shippee

University of Illinois

Chicago, Illinois

Samuel Weaver

St. John’s College

Annapolis, Maryland

Patrick Mayles

Graduate student

Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Christina Jeong

College Student

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, Indiana

Improve Your Writing Skills

Other than endorsing perfect punctuation and grammar in English, the Ayn Rand Institute offers no advice or feedback for essays submitted to its contests. However, we do recommend the following resources as ways to improve the content of your essays.

The Atlas Project

Writing: a mini-course.

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We’ll send you periodic reminders about the contest deadlines, as well as helpful resources to ensure you get the most out of your experience reading and writing about Ayn Rand’s  Atlas Shrugged .

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Atlas Shrugged is a mystery novel like no other. You enter a world where scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, and inventors are inexplicably vanishing—where the world is crumbling.

What you discover, by the end, is an uplifting vision of life, an inspiring cast of heroes, and a challenging new way to think about life’s most important issues.

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Quarter at Aggie Square

Update on Biomedical engineering undergrads who won at the BigBang! Buisness Plan Competition

• by Paul D Terry
• April 05, 2024

Quarter at Aggie Square is an academic program offered by UC Davis for undergraduates at UC Davis Sacramento campus that consists of coursework, internships, and community engagement of up to 18 units towards graduation. Different topics are taught each academic quarter. Quarter at Aggie Square’s 2022 fall quarter Biomedical Engineering cohort won the 2023 Big Bang! Competition in spring 2023 with Square Solutions, one of their two medical innovations. The students received the $10,000 Human Health + Industry Sector Award for their design for safe transportation for cell therapies. They hope to solve the issue of cell loss during transportation from research labs to patients in the hospital by providing an easier way for these cell therapies, cells that are grown in labs, to make it to the target patient without freezing them which can kill about 15% of the cells in the process. 

Since winning the competition, the students have been focused on understanding how to manufacture their incubator to provide the best results. They intend to use the prize money to create and develop a functional prototype that will be utilized for future competitions and as a potential product model for interested customers. 

The competition has given them more confidence to participate in more programs for student startups. They are currently participating in PLASMA, an accelerator program that will help the students with their ventures and connect them with accomplished entrepreneurs and investors. As a team comprised of senior biomedical engineering majors, the students have been using their experience at Quarter at Aggie Square and the Big Bang! Competition to enhance their senior design projects. Senior design projects are group projects in which a team designs and prototypes a product, device, process or software system, and are a requirement for all students in an engineering major at UC Davis. 

Quarter at Aggie Square offered students opportunities that are uniquely available. They learn directly from and engage with physicians, nurses, and technicians that help them apply what is learned in the classroom to real-life situations. By observing professionals and actively engaging with them, the students are able to adapt to the field they will work in and develop the skills needed for success early on. Some notable experiences included learning about the physiology of specific body parts and witnessing how physicians find solutions and treat the body within surgical procedure.  

To learn about the Fall 2023 Biomedical Engineering Quarter at Aggie Square students or the Quarter at Aggie Square offerings, visit qas.ucdavis.edu . 

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Regions Riding Forward® Scholarship Contest

Their Story. Your Voice.

Your voice is your own. But it's also been impacted by others. Who, we wonder, has inspired you? Let us know by entering the Regions Riding Forward Scholarship Contest. 

You could win an $8,000 college scholarship

For the opportunity to win an $8,000 scholarship, submit a video or written essay about an individual you know personally (who lives in your community) who has inspired you and helped you build the confidence you need to achieve your goals.

The details

The 2024 Regions Riding Forward Scholarship Contest consists of four (4) separate Quarterly Contests - one for each calendar quarter of 2024. Regions is awarding four $8,000 scholarships through each Quarterly Contest.

Each Quarterly Contest has its own separate entry period, as provided in the chart below.

The entry deadline for each Quarterly Contest is 11:59:59 PM Central Time on the applicable Quarterly Contest period end date (set forth in the chart above).

No purchase or banking relationship required.

Regions believes in supporting the students whose passion and actions every day will continue to make stories worth sharing. That’s why we have awarded over $1 million in total scholarships to high school and college students.

How to enter, 1. complete an online quarterly contest application.

Enter the Regions Riding Forward Scholarship Contest by completing a Quarterly Contest application.  The second Quarterly Contest runs from April 1, 2024 through June 30, 2024. Complete and save all requested information. 

2. Prepare your Written Essay or Video Essay

For each Quarterly Contest, the topic of your Written Essay or Video Essay (your “Essay Topic”) must be an individual you know personally, who lives in your community. Your Written Essay or Video Essay must address how the individual you have selected as your Essay Topic has inspired you and helped you build the confidence you need to achieve your goals.

Written Essay and Video Essay submissions must meet all of the requirements described in the contest Official Rules. Your Written Essay or Video Essay must be (i) in English, (ii) your own original work, created solely by you (and without the use of any means of artificial intelligence (“AI”)), and (iii) the exclusive property of you alone.

Written Essays must be 500 words or less. You can write your Written Essay directly in the application, or you can copy and paste it into the appropriate area in the application form.

Video Essay submissions must be directly uploaded to the contest application site. Video Essays must be no more than 3 minutes in length and no larger than 1 GB. Only the following file formats are accepted: MP4, MPG, MOV, AVI, and WMV. Video Essays must not contain music of any kind nor display any illegal, explicit, or inappropriate material, and Video Essays must not be password protected or require a log-in/sign-in to view. You must upload your Video Essay to the application, and you may not submit your Video Essay in DVD or other physical form. (Video Essays submitted via mail will not be reviewed or returned.)

Tips to Record Quality Videos on a Smartphone:

• Don’t shoot vertical video. Computer monitors have landscape-oriented displays, so shoot your video horizontally.
• Use a tripod. Even small movements can make a big difference when editing.
• Don’t use zoom. If you need to get a close shot of the subject, move closer as zooming can cause pixilation.
• Use natural lighting. Smartphone lighting can wash out your video.

3. Review and submit your Quarterly Contest application

Review your information on your Quarterly Application (and check the spelling of a Written Essay) and submit your entry by 11:59:59 p.m. Central Time on the applicable Quarterly Contest period end date. The second Quarterly Contest period end date is June 30, 2024.

4. Await notification

Winning entries are selected by an independent panel of judges who are not affiliated with Regions. If your entry is selected as a Quarterly Contest winner, you will need to respond to ISTS with the required information.

Eligibility

For purposes of this contest:

• The “Eligible States” are defined as the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
• An “accredited college” is defined as a nonprofit, two- or four-year college or university located within one of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia.

To be eligible to enter this contest and to win an award in a Quarterly Contest, at the time of entry, you must:

• Be a legal U.S. resident of one of the Eligible States.
• Be age 16 or older.
• Have at least one (1) year (or at least 18 semester hours) remaining before college graduation.
• If you are not yet in college, begin your freshman year of college no later than the start of the 2025 – 2026 college academic school year.
• As of your most recent school enrollment period, have a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.0 in school (and if no GPA is provided at school, be in “good standing” or the equivalent thereof in school).

View Official Rules

NO PURCHASE OR BANKING RELATIONSHIP REQUIRED. PURCHASE OR BANKING RELATIONSHIP WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. The 2024 Regions Riding Forward Scholarship Contest (the “Contest”) consists of four (4) separate quarterly contests (each a “Quarterly Contest”): (1) the “Q-1 Contest;” (2) the “Q-2 Contest;” (3) the “Q-3 Contest;” and (4) the “Q-4 Contest.” The Q-1 Contest begins on 02/01/24 and ends on 03/31/24; the Q-2 Contest begins on 04/01/24 and ends on 06/30/24; the Q-3 Contest begins on 07/01/24 and ends on 09/30/24; and the Q-4 Contest begins on 10/01/24 and ends on 12/31/24. (For each Quarterly Contest, entries must be submitted and received by 11:59:59 PM CT on the applicable Quarterly Contest period end date.) To enter and participate in a particular Quarterly Contest, at the time of entry, you must: (a) be a legal U.S. resident of one of the Eligible States; (b) be 16 years of age or older; (c) have at least one (1) year (or at least 18 semester hours) remaining before college graduation; (d) (if you are not yet in college) begin your freshman year of college no later than the start of the 2025 – 2026 college academic school year; and (e) as of your most recent school enrollment period, have a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.0 in school (and if no grade point average is provided at school, be in “good standing” or the equivalent thereof in school). (For purposes of Contest, the “Eligible States” are defined as the states of AL, AR, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MS, MO, NC, SC, TN and TX.) Visit regions.com/ridingforward for complete Contest details, including eligibility and Written Essay and Video Essay requirements and Official Rules. (Limit one (1) entry per person, per Quarterly Contest.) For each Quarterly Contest, eligible entries will be grouped according to form of entry (Written Essay or Video Essay) and judged by a panel of independent, qualified judges. A total of four (4) Quarterly Contest Prizes will be awarded in each Quarterly Contest, consisting of two (2) Quarterly Contest Prizes for the Written Essay Entry Group and two (2) Quarterly Contest Prizes for the Video Essay Entry Group. Each Quarterly Contest Prize consists of a check in the amount of $8,000 made out to winner’s designated accredited college. (Limit one (1) Quarterly Contest Prize per person; a contestant is permitted to win only one (1) Quarterly Contest Prize through the Contest.) Sponsor: Regions Bank, 1900 Fifth Ave. N., Birmingham, AL 35203.

© 2024 Regions Bank. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. Regions and the Regions logo are registered trademarks of Regions Bank. The LifeGreen color is a trademark of Regions Bank.

2023 Winners

High school:.

• Amyrrean Acoff
• Leon Aldridge
• Kharis Andrews
• Colton Collier
• Indya Griffin
• Christopher Hak
• Aquil Hayes
• Jayden Haynes
• McKenna Jodoin
• Paris Kelly
• Liza Latimer
• Dylan Lodle
• Anna Mammarelli
• Karrington Manley
• Marcellus Odum
• Gautami Palthepu
• Melody Small
• Lauryn Tanner
• Joshua Wilson
• Mohamed Ali
• Kayla Bellamy
• Lauren Boxx
• Alexandria Brown
• Samuel Brown
• Thurston Brown
• Conner Daehler
• Tsehai de Souza
• Anjel Echols
• Samarion Flowers
• Trinity Griffin
• Kristina Hilton
• Ryan Jensen
• Miracle Jones
• Shaniece McGhee
• Chelby Melvin
• Lamiya Ousley
• Kiera Phillips
• Gabrielle Pippins
• Ethan Snead
• Sydney Springs
• Kirsten Tilford
• Tamira Weeks
• Justin Williams

2022 Winners

• Paul Aucremann
• William Booker
• Robyn Cunningham
• Kani'ya Davis
• Oluwatomi Dugbo
• Lillian Goins
• Parker Hall
• Collin Hatfield
• Gabrielle Izu
• Kylie Lauderdale
• Jacob Milan
• Jackson Mitchell
• Carmen Moore
• Madison Morgan
• Kaden Oquelí-White
• Kaylin Parks
• Brian Perryman
• De'Marco Riggins
• Brianna Roundtree
• Sydney Russell
• Carlie Spore
• Morgan Standifer
• Ionia Thomas
• Ramaya Thomas
• Jaylen Toran
• Amani Veals
• Taylor Williams
• Alana Wilson
• Taryn Wilson
• Aryaunna Armstrong
• Hannah Blackwell
• T'Aneka Bowers
• Naomi Bradley
• Arianna Cannon
• Taylor Cline
• Catherine Cummings
• Margaret Fitzgerald
• Chloe Franklin
• Camryn Gaines
• Thomas Greer
• Kayla Helleson
• Veronica Holmes
• Logan Kurtz
• Samuel Lambert
• Jaylon Muchison
• Teresa Odom
• Andrew Payne
• Carey Price
• Emily SantiAnna
• Curtis Smith
• Jered Smith
• Mariah Standifer
• Maura Taylor
• Anna Wilkes