Med School Minutes- Ep. 41- From Adversity to Achievement: Dr. Yaya Besong's MD Journey

#caribbeanmedschool #sjsm #medstudent 

Welcome to another episode of the Med School Minutes Podcast.  Get ready for an incredible episode of the Med School Minutes podcast with Dr. Yaya Besong! She's breaking barriers in medicine, sharing her journey from tough times to triumph. Hear how she tackled personal setbacks, weathered storms, and even a pandemic, all while pursuing her dream. Dr. Besong's story is all about family support, resilience, and making it through with a little help from St James School of Medicine. Tune in for an inspiring dose of real-life med school magic.


0:00- Intro
0:38- Dr. Besong’s Journey to Medical School
2:29- Overcoming Adversity
3:46- Achievements and Residency Match
5:01- Advice on Residency Applications
7:36- Dr. Besong’s Approach to Personal Statements and Interviews
11:12- Support Systems and Mentoring
15:01- Personal Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
18:53- Choosing a Residency Program
22:37- Utilizing School Resources and Building Confidence
26:01- Coping with Challenges and Building Resilience
32:36- Looking Ahead and Giving Back


#matchday #medschooljourney #match #residency #doctor #caribbeanmedschool #medschool #futuremd $#medstudent 
#MedSchoolMinutes
#StJamesMedicine
#MedicalEducation
#ResidencyLife
#DoctorJourney
#IMGSupport
#MedicalResidency
#HealthcareHeroes
#FutureDoctors
#MedicalPodcast
#CaribbeanMedSchool
#PhysicianLife
#MedicalStudents
#MedSchoolChallenges
#InspiringDoctors

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Med School Minutes podcast, where we discuss what it takes to attend and successfully complete a medical program. This show is brought to you by St James School of Medicine. Here is your host, kaushik Guha.

Speaker 2: 0:19

Thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Med School Minutes, where we talk about everything MD related, with a focus on international students, specifically students from the Caribbean. Today we have a wonderful guest, dr Yaya Basong. Dr Yaya Basong has been a trailblazer all her career and she was one of the first students to move to Texas when we started our partnership with the South Texas Health System, and she has been an extremely generous supporter of St James in every step that we've taken and with this match cycle, we're very proud to say that Dr Yaya Basang has actually matched and we are going to talk a little bit about her journey and how she's used some of the tools that the school has given her. So, without further ado, let's welcome Dr Yaya Basang. Well, dr Basang, thank you so much for joining us today. You know we always start our podcast with a little bit of a background, so why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 3: 1:24

So thank you for having me on this podcast today and, like you rightfully called me, I am proud to say I am Dr Bissong. Today, I am the first physician in my family. Believe it or not, I am last of seven children. We are four girls and three boys, and I have to give a shout out to my siblings. They all got together to put money together and send me to St James School of Medicine, so as I created a payment plan, it all came out of my siblings' pocket, so I had to make sure I finished this journey for them, because they invested a lot in my life.

Speaker 3: 2:05

I lost my mom in 2014. That was a tough time for me. I thought I would be a mess. After that Again, like I said, I'm the last of seven children, so I was the spoiled one, but I got to gather the courage and apply to St James School of Medicine With the support of my family. I feel like that is what got me through the entire journey, and when I started in September of 2016, it was amazing. I made some great friendships that have lasted up until this day.

Speaker 3: 2:41

I was part of the students that experienced Hurricane Irma. That was a big thing for me, and we transitioned to St Vincent for one semester while they were fixing the campus in Anguilla. But we couldn't wait to go back to Anguilla because I think the island is just so beautiful. We couldn't stay in St Vincent, I'm sorry, but Anguilla was home for us already. But you know, I went through again the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaker 3: 3:10

That was another one. I am someone who's gone through heartbreak during preparing for my exams, you know, and I've had a lot of failures along the journey, but I kept my heart in the right place, which was looking at the big picture, and my dream was always to make sure that I kept the promise to my late mom and I made sure that I did not waste my family's investment by ever thinking I could give up on this journey. So, no matter how long it took me, I am sitting here in front of you because of my resilience and the support I got from my family, and that's just like a brief background of who I am. I'm currently single. I don't have kids, so I look forward to hopefully having a family one day, maybe as big as mine, but I'm grateful for the life I have. Yeah, was mine, but I'm grateful for the life I have.

Speaker 2: 4:05

Yeah Well, dr Bessong, I do want to point out that you basically completed your journey despite a hurricane, despite a global pandemic. So I think you should absolutely, if those global events have not been able to stop you, I genuinely don't think anything can stop you moving forward.

Speaker 2: 4:29

So congratulations on completing the journey, but again, you've completed one chapter and the next chapter, as you rightly pointed out, it's about the family, Absolutely yes, I would think, the journey of gratitude for your family, who seem to have been so supportive, and hopefully next time they give you a call for any of their kids or anything's going wrong, yuni, you better be the first person there.

Speaker 3: 4:51

Trust me, they have started calling already.

Speaker 2: 4:55

That's awesome, but to quickly rewind, you keep saying that it's a long journey. Honestly, you haven't really taken that much time. You completed your MD relatively soon.

Speaker 2: 5:10

So the average student in our program finishes in about four and a half, five years, I think you've taken to finish. I don't think you took any additional time to actually finish the MD. I believe you had some, you know, a couple of roadblocks when it comes to residency applications, right? So, and you know, as the saying goes, you only fail when you've given up. So I don't think that there's been any failures in your career so far. You basically, you know, picked up the pieces, learned from it and got better and better. How many interviews did you have in the last Mad Site?

Speaker 3: 5:55

I had a total of eight interviews and I would just be honest and transparent I did apply to more than one specialty. Okay, I applied to internal medicine and family medicine because, as an IMG and having gone through counseling and, you know, listening to other IMGs, it is difficult for us to match into any specialty. Difficult for us to match into any specialty. So I had to make sure that, with the available resources and financial resources that I had, I took the risk and I applied to two specialties Internal medicine I applied to more internal medicine programs than family medicine, but I got two interviews in internal medicine and six in family medicine in internal medicine and six in family medicine.

Speaker 2: 6:46

So, as you have mentioned, you've kind of applied to two separate specialties. But the main thing is that when we advise our students, so when you started, so you were the first student in Texas before. Let me clarify that you were a trailblazer, so to speak. You were the person who laid the foundation for the SGA that operates in Texas as well as the other regions, because we've never had SGs before and I know every time I met you there was a whole laundry list of suggestions that you would have.

Speaker 2: 7:22

I would try to run away from all of those list of suggestions that you would have. Yes, I would try to run away from all of those, but I mean the point I'm trying to make is a lot of the suggestions that you've made have truly made the program better and the student experience better. So, alongside that, we've also introduced a Resi Ready program that we do, which is about to start next week I believe For students, where we tell them, give them tips, tips and tricks, and we always tell our students to apply for at least two, like it's at a point where we are not going to certify students or not certify, but submit MSPEs unless they actually have two specialties.

Speaker 3: 8:08

Okay, Okay, I like that because you know, to tell you the truth, my best friend runs an IMG roadmap course where she mentors a lot of IMGs. Now, when I spoke to Dr Dina Mohammed, like you know, you know how she's amazing, she's a great mentor.

Speaker 3: 8:30

She also encouraged me to say you know, every IMG used to think that internal medicine was the easier path. You know, I don't know where that message came from, but every IMG that I spoke to always thought internal medicine was easy. And then, when we look at the statistics, we started to find out that it wasn't easy. It became more competitive and then at the end of the match cycle, er and general surgery were taking in more prelim. You know students in the soap. You know period that didn't match more prelim. You know students in the SOAP. You know period that didn't match.

Speaker 3: 9:04

And then family medicine had a lot of open positions. So the trick became what is your big picture? You have to know your big picture. Maybe you want to go into fellowship, or maybe you want to do just outpatient clinic, right? Or maybe you just want to be a hospitalist.

Speaker 3: 9:23

But what is your big picture when you look at the difference between family medicine and internal medicine, what are you seeing as a difference? Because we tend to use the names of the specialties without really digging into what they're offering, right? If I am into family medicine, which was my number one specialty, I know that I'll be seeing from zero years old to a hundred year old, but maybe an internist is only going to see adult patients, right? But if you want to specialize, it doesn't just come down to applying to one specialty because you want to go into fellowship. It comes down to the programs you choose, because there are programs that would immediately have fellowship programs there that you can transition into, and then there are programs that would immediately have fellowship programs there that you can transition into, and then there are programs that the training does not make it easier for you to get into fellowship. So I always tell people, after going through the process and the journey of the match cycle, you have to look at the big picture.

Speaker 3: 10:21

Where do you want to end up? And you should know this before going into the application cycle. I also met a student who wanted to apply to three specialties or four and I told him that's a bit much. It sounds like you are indecisive, but again, if you listen to the program directors, they will tell you they want someone who's passionate about the specialty they applied to. Yes, and for me, when I went into this process, I knew for sure I wanted family medicine, but at the same time I knew that when I look at my big picture, whether I get into family medicine or internal, I know that I will get to where my big picture is right, right, right, um.

Speaker 2: 11:04

So you know a couple of things about that is that you know, as you said, four specialties might be too much. Or you know and you know there is a saying that if you try to sit between two chairs, you might fall in between.

Speaker 3: 11:18

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 11:19

So, but again, as a school we really encourage that because we also see a lot of um unrealistic expectations For example somebody wants to be going to surgery, but they have multiple attempts or they have lower scores, and at that point we're always like well, you know, maybe you should really think long and hard about the big picture, as you pointed out, and essentially a dose of reality, because, um, I don't know, In your perspective, what do you think is more important? Is time more important or getting into your particular speciality more important? What was your?

Speaker 3: 12:03

perspective. I don't think time is as important as getting into the right specialty, not just as IMGs. I keep saying IMGs because I have seen in the match process there is a difference between an international medical graduate and a US graduate. However, it comes down to your specialty of choice and your realistic expectation going into that specialty. There is also a point I tried to.

Speaker 3: 12:40

The reason why we started the welcome committee here is to be honest with the students that basic science is not clinical science. One thing I know benefited me is how amazing my clinical scores were. If you look at my MSBE, it's a bunch of A's and a few B's. Okay, because I cannot say I am going into pediatrics but all I did is a core rotation in pediatrics. I didn't do any family medicine to see more kids. I didn't do any extra ER to see more kids. I didn't do any extra ER to see more babies and kids. I didn't go back to doing infectious disease, which I know is one of the things that affects children, right.

Speaker 3: 13:24

So when programs are looking at your application, they want to see what you did as a future pediatrician, excuse me, to strengthen the direction of your application and then again, the realistic nature of looking at your grades. Like you said, if you have multiple attempts you're not automatically disqualified. But that weakens you as a surgery applicant versus a family medicine applicant and I think students are more willing to take the risk than work on their realistic expectations. Be real with who you are. We all don't choose to fail our exams. We all do not choose to have attempts. But once that happens to you, you have to find the strength to say I will maximize my chances, using my weaknesses in my application as my strengths. I am not going to apply to a program I know I'm not going to match into because they do look at your attempts.

Speaker 3: 14:26

A surgery resident is, and I know someone who took as long as me and matched in a surgery program in Vegas but she didn't have an attempt. So even though she took a longer time to finish you know their MD journey she had great scores and she had other supporting materials that helped her match into general surgery. So I think for me it's matching into the right program that fits your profile over the time yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:55

So, dr basal, I again, respectfully, I would like to correct you. I don't think you've taken a long time. Mind you, you've had a hurricane and a three-year pandemic right uh between what, uh, when you started versus when you ended. I know a lot of us graduates who US graduates who had to add about one to two years to their graduation just because of the pandemic, like a lot of the students couldn't even do rotations, at least we, and thanks to South Texas and Dr Yusuf Majid, they kept things open for our students.

Speaker 3: 15:30

Yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 15:32

That was remarkable, and he said that we have American students too, but the universities have chose to close because they'd rather you know, for whatever reason they don't want to do that, Whereas Dr Majid and Dr Dina Muhammad, they said that you know, this is for a medical practitioner, this is once in a lifetime opportunity, and they were like we want to see the students come in and jump in the fray and experience this. What were the pandemic years like for you, Because you pretty much lived through the whole thing.

Speaker 3: 16:07

I did First and foremost because of the pandemic. I had a really bad breakup in my personal life, in my relationship. That was number one. Right when the pandemic broke, the distance created friction in my relationship and that ended Again. When the pandemic happened, I was still trying to pass my MBME for step one. I was still trying to pass my MBME for step one and, believe you me, taking that final MBME, I purchased a new computer. I had to be on the screen, being watched on the screen as I take that MBME. It is nerve wracking because one of the things I will tell you right off the bat is I am a great teacher. I had a message from someone on Instagram telling me I used to tutor her in St Vincent.

Speaker 3: 17:00

OK but I am a bad exam taker. I do not like being under a controlled environment. It freaks me out. There's a camera over your head. There's a camera to your left. I get a bit nervous. So that's one of the things that you know bothered me. But again, because of that particular exam, I did pass that MBME and I succeeded to get ready for my step one.

Speaker 3: 17:25

Another thing that the pandemic did to me was my sister-in-law got really hit by the pandemic. She was one of the people that was an essential worker, so she stepped out of the house and she caught COVID and then brought that home and I ended up with COVID and even though I wasn't as bad as she was emotionally, it's very depressing because I was stuck in my room for weeks. I was studying on my bed with my iPad and then my sister-in-law was in the hospital for about 10 days and then she came home and she was oxygen dependent for three months. Okay, it was that bad and as a result of that experience, I took a course on Harvard Online School of Medicine on mechanical ventilation for COVID-19 patients and guess what? I put that certificate in my ERAS application and every program asked me why I took that training.

Speaker 1: 18:28

Wow, and when I told them it was because of my sister-in-law's experience.

Speaker 3: 18:30

They were all fascinated because I told them I wanted to know my sister-in-law's experience. They were all fascinated Because I told them I wanted to know under what criteria a patient would be so oxygen dependent and end up on mechanical ventilation. And I learned about the vent settings and all these things. And every time they asked me, why did you take that course, why was it so important to you? And I said, remember, it was a pandemic the US was not prepared for and it changed a lot of people's lives for good, yes Wow.

Speaker 3: 19:00

So that was my experience, yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:02

That is a really amazing story. So tell me this you matched into Arnold Health, right, correct? Why did you choose that particular program? Why did you choose to rank it?

Speaker 3: 19:17

Arnold Health. Let me tell you from the very beginning this is a strategy I put out there right away when I was applying. The first place I looked at to pick out the programs was the SJSM match list. You guys have that on the website and I wanted to find programs that my peers have matched into. It just makes sense right. Then I was listening to the podcast with Dr Roland Zane and when I was preparing for this match cycle I put in a lot of time.

Speaker 3: 19:55

If I open my ERAS application and show you I have 20 top personal statements personalized to my top 20 programs, none of those personal statements have the same detail. I went into each program and I found something unique in that program to include in my personal statement. So when I watched that podcast I took out my pen and paper. Everything Dr Baxter said he expects from an applicant, I wrote it down. Everything Dr Roland Zhang said about how to present yourself in the realest way possible, I put it down and I studied it.

Speaker 3: 20:37

So I went back to my application and I made sure every experience, every detail that I included about myself aligned with what the program director was looking for and I didn't have to fake it. I have a lot of experiences but I teased apart the ones that aligned with that program. And then again, as an alumni, I just initiated communication with Dr Roland Zhang. I found his SJSM email. It took him about five weeks to respond because he doesn't check that email as much as his you know his current email but he responded and then he said would you like to have a conversation over the phone?

Speaker 2: 21:17

And guess what.

Speaker 3: 21:19

Once he offered that, I took that and for 30 minutes on the call he coached me on what the interview process is like, without telling me what kind of questions are going to be asked. But he wanted me to know about Elmira, New York, which I've never been to.

Speaker 3: 21:34

He wanted me to know about his experience as a resident and he wanted me to just be myself. Then the key thing he said, which I wrote down again I have a notebook to show you this. He said when you get to that interview, act like you're talking to a friend you haven't seen for a long time. That did it for me. So he built my confidence and when I went into that interview everybody I spoke to was my friend.

Speaker 1: 22:03

We just got along.

Speaker 3: 22:06

I don't know how it happened, but we just got along. And then after the interview I messaged the program coordinator and I asked her for the email address of everybody that had interviewed me. There were four people total, and you know what she said. She said you're actually the first student to ask us immediately after the interview for the program directors and the residents emails to say thank you to them. The moment I did that, arnold Health was one of my first three interviews. Every other interview I went into with the same energy, but I already knew I was going to match Wow.

Speaker 2: 22:39

That's amazing. So it almost seems like you know the podcast really guided you in that direction.

Speaker 3: 22:49

It did, it did.

Speaker 2: 22:51

And I'm so grateful to you for using it the way the original intention was. The intention was to provide information to our students, to provide insights into how to apply, and you know, to be honest, you're one of the few students who've actually used it in that way.

Speaker 2: 23:12

We have a podcast by one of our alumnus called dr tarabi she only applied to 28 programs and I think she got 26 interviews and and she basically lists out how she did it and this she had a clear strategy and she matched into OB. It's not even like the more quote unquote easy ones Absolutely OB is tough, ob is tough.

Speaker 2: 23:41

And she lists all of that out. And I keep telling students who are, like you know, applying for several years, have you paid attention to the podcast? And they're like no. And then when they come to us and we're looking at their applications, we're like, yeah, your personal statement, you know it's very vanilla, it's not bad, but it doesn't stand out. And it seems like they're getting some sort of advice, but it's not good advice.

Speaker 3: 24:07

It's not good advice. Absolutely it's not good advice.

Speaker 2: 24:11

And that's why we strongly encourage all of our students to stay in touch with us, because a lot of students are like well, you know, I mean, I've graduated. But the way we look at it at least the way I look at it I've had conversations with a handful of students who've been in a difficult situation and they're trying to get out of it and we keep telling them. Why don't you tell us? Like you know, thanks to uh south texas health system, we've had so many post-match opportunities yes a lot of these students didn't even see those emails.

Speaker 3: 24:43

They didn't, they didn't I religiously look at my emails from st james school of medicine. And another thing I want to add during the interview process. And another thing I want to add during the interview process I used the offer that was given to the school about practicing my interview skills. I don't remember the guy who interviewed me. I have his name written down but I don't remember his name. But I had been practicing for my interviews before my scheduled interview with the person from St James.

Speaker 3: 25:17

But when I got on the camera with him and he asked me a few questions, he said Yaya, you have what it takes to make it through this interview process. There's something inside that you keep holding back and I want you to bring it out. The moment he said that, the next question he asked me and I responded, he said boom, that's what I was looking for. So I tell you I didn't have to pay anybody to coach me for interviews because the school offered us free interview sessions. I signed up for one of it and it worked in my favor because he really built my confidence. I took it as if I was taking a real interview and that was the only person I ever sat in front of the camera with dressed up, looking professional and not not not joking about it and he gave me good tips and it worked that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 26:01

So again, that's the idea. This year we're doing it a little different, because last year we got a lot of complaints from students who were like well, I matched and I got interviews, but the slots filled up, so we have limited staff here. So what we're doing is we're doing a general round, uh, pretty early, and then after september onwards, only students who have interview calls we're going to work with them.

Speaker 2: 26:25

Yeah, because it it makes sense. It's not like we're trying to discriminate, but also, if you've got a interview, we want you to knock it out of the park.

Speaker 3: 26:31

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 26:33

And so do you have. You know I know you mentioned that at point you were at you had, throughout your journey, certain points when you had low points Correct and you said that you had, you know, times that helped you or things that you did to keep your mental peace and things that you keep to keep your emotional strength. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Speaker 3: 27:00

sure. So one of the things, um I, I, I would start by saying is please, as a student, as a future resident, it is important to take advantage of your support system. Okay, because when I tried the MBME for step one the first time we all tried the first time on the island right, and then I didn't get a passing score. I left the island. I came home, took the Kaplan course again from home, had a second try at it didn't get a score. My best friend again I will tell you she's now into emergency medicine she told me to come stay with her in Kentucky, away from family, so that I won't be distracted. I took that opportunity and guess what? Every morning or every weekend, my best friend would meal prep for the two of us so I don't have to cook, and she would put it in the refrigerator and all she wanted was for me to study. That helped me a lot because, again, my next attempt, I did not pass the MBME, but I did a lot better.

Speaker 2: 28:05

Okay.

Speaker 3: 28:06

Now, what made me leave Kentucky was I lost one of my closest aunts, which was my mom's sister, and she passed away of cancer, and it was really tough on us. So I had to go back to Maryland to get ready for her funeral and during that time again I suspended my studying, went through the whole funeral process until she was buried. But it was my support system. My brother and my sister-in-law, whom I lived with in Maryland, were always there for me. Every morning I woke up at 5 am and I would go downstairs and I would start studying again.

Speaker 2: 28:45

I didn't get a passing score.

Speaker 3: 28:47

Now I took the opportunity to get on the computer and look at places like Reddit, which I hardly ever visit, because Reddit can be discouraging sometimes. Everybody has a perfect experience or 270,. You know it can be discouraging, but I went on Reddit to look for a tutor because I wanted someone to help me. And I found a great guy on Reddit. He was in Canada and because of the time difference now I got to wake up at 5 am to be able to get on Zoom with him to go through material. And because I sought that help, I came to find out one of the things that, apart from just being a bad exam taker because I freak out in these controlled environments one of those things that helped me was discovering that I used too many resources.

Speaker 3: 29:42

I am the resource guru of step one. I had every book, I had every question bag and I did not finish any of them. That worked against me. But I discovered that secret very late on in the game. When I say late on, I mean after multiple attempts at my MBME.

Speaker 3: 30:02

So one of the things Derek told me was cut down your resources, Focus on Pathoma. Look at you know the beginning of all of this. Start from the nitty gritty and then use simple things like sketchy micro and then focus on you world. But because he saw that there was a trend in my scores, he didn't even want me to continue the you world because my scores on you world were not changing. He just said pick a section, an organ system that you're doing really badly in and figure it out, then go to the next organ system. And so I used Derek's strategy, and while the pandemic came in and slowed things down and we couldn't go to Prometrics to write the exam, it was after I got the tutoring that I passed my MBME.

Speaker 3: 30:55

The final round, yes. And from there, even though I didn't get a high step one score, my confidence and strategy of reducing my resources and focusing on the basics made me take step one the first time and pass, you know. So that was how I managed to get through that time of my lows by taking advantage of my support system from my best friend, from my family, and I also incorporated meditation. Like I said, my Christian background is a strong one, and so praying always made me get up every other day and try again.

Speaker 2: 31:31

Right, right, right, but that's awesome because, you know, it seems like the pandemic has exasperated a lot of anxiety issues with a lot of people not just students across the board, and I think, for one reason or the other, we need to be able to cope with the pressures, or it seems like the pressures and the stresses that we were used to all of a sudden have become more acute. And I think this little bit of wisdom that you've imparted when it comes to your support system friends, family, meditating, praying I think these are all very important factors and I think I hope, as you took our podcast and internalize it, I hope some of our students do this and internalize it as well. But as we come close to our time, I, dr Bissong, I definitely want to point out that number one you keep saying that you've had a lot of failures. In my opinion, there are no failures. You didn saying that you've had a lot of failures. In my opinion, there are no failures. You didn't give up, so there aren't any failures. You've succeeded and you will continue to succeed.

Speaker 2: 32:43

As I mentioned, a Category 5 hurricane and a global pandemic couldn't stop you and dissuade you from this journey. Nothing else will. So there is almost nothing that's going to stand in your path anymore. And finally, you keep saying that you've taken a lot of time. You haven't, because when you look at the odds of what happened while you were in med school, you had insurmountable obstacles, but you put that in your rear view mirror and you're moving ahead. So, for all intents and purposes and for by all measures, I think you are an extremely successful physician and the path is just beginning for you, and we can't wait to see how this unfolds because again, you're joining a rank of what 800 plus physicians that have been practicing in the United States and Canada, and I also want to point out that you've really thanked Dr Yusuf Majid and Dr Dina Muhammad.

Speaker 2: 33:50

Dr Dina Muhammad is our alumnus and then, I believe, dr Roland Zhang reached out to you. So these are all alumnus, and thank you so much for using the st james ecosystem to your advantage.

Speaker 2: 34:05

This is what we clearly tell our students that you know, we are a small school and we not may not have, uh, amazing resources like, uh, the multi-billion dollar schools that people are paying four or five hundred thousand dollars to attend to, but we do have a very close-knit ecosystem and we want students to reach out to us. We have an alumni base where, which is over, with over 250 active students who want to help other students and believe, believe it or not, I can count on one hand how many students have reached out to us to ask for support and help.

Speaker 3: 34:42

They don't. They don't ask for support and that is why, even just working at Dr Yaj's clinic here you know Dr Yaj loves St James School of Medicine. When I did internal medicine with him I was his student leader, so of course I developed a closer relationship with him. But I worked hard because he's just a genius, he will put you to work Now because I had this one year to spare. While preparing for the application cycle. I told him hire me and you know what it is thanks to the fact that I stayed in reaching out. I always reminded him. You told me when I'm done, if I need help, there's always an open door. I reached out and I want to send that message out today. We started the welcome committee for students because we wanted them to have an easy transition. Everybody that drove to my house to learn how to do the log books, to figure out how to do their notes, how to present. I have a list of students.

Speaker 2: 35:45

Wow.

Speaker 3: 35:45

Right up until today, and even though I work as a care coordinator at this clinic, I am still doing the onboarding process for the St James School of Medicine students. I assist in doing every one of them and I've been helping Dr Dina with that part of it right up until the last day when I leave here in early June, because when I do the onboarding process I make sure to give them a little bit of my story. I make sure to tell them how serious this process is, but I also make sure to tell them how serious this process is. But I also make sure to remind them you are not alone. Please reach out to the school you complain about your emails are not getting responded to. Yes, there's a bunch of emails, but how come? Yaya Bisson's emails were always responded to? It's because when I send it and I don't get a response, I will send it again, because probably my email dropped below 100 emails and they haven't gotten to it. But when I resend it, it goes and drops other emails too.

Speaker 3: 36:42

Right, it's a process, but that also tests your patience. It is part of being a physician. You have to be patient. You cannot have everything your way at the first instance, right. So if you're patient and you use the resources, you give us quizzes on the student portal. How many people take those quizzes and use it as their extra prep resource for their shelf exams? That is all part of how St James helps us and I've written a review about the school. I have been part of committees for the school. I brag about the school and people used to not believe it until I matched into residency and I told them I didn't have to transfer out of St James School of Medicine. If I have to do it over again, I'm going back to the Anguilla campus and I will do it again.

Speaker 2: 37:35

Well, I mean, Anguilla is amazing. We're building a big campus. I don't know if you know this.

Speaker 3: 37:40

Yes, I know this. I follow everything St James, so I know this. I saw the inauguration ceremony. The first ground is there and it's going to be amazing, awesome.

Speaker 2: 37:50

So, dr Basong, our only ask from you is that when other St James students come knocking at your door for help, which I assure you they will we are really trying to get students out of their cocoons and out of their shells to reach out to our alumnus please help them out and give them the helping hand that you got and you wish you could have gotten as well.

Speaker 3: 38:13

Yes.

Speaker 2: 38:14

So that is our only ask of you, but again, thank you so much, and thank you for believing in the school and thank you for using the resources that we really try to provide, because, if nothing else, this podcast really puts a groundwork as to how to use the resources that we really hope students use, and you've used it the exact way that we want students to use Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 38:38

Thank you so much for the opportunity. Thank you for giving my voice a chance, and I have to give you my word. I will do as you say. And if I do not. Dr Roland Zhang is not going to forgive me because I have to pay it forward, right?

Speaker 2: 38:54

Yes, absolutely, absolutely. But I will also point out that if things didn't work out, I can almost guarantee that Dr Dina Muhammad would have ensured you would have matched in South Texas. Oh, I had a place in.

Speaker 3: 39:07

South Texas. I just think God had me have more interviews before the program was willing to accept students and so God made me fall in love somewhere else. But I know that even if I return to South Texas, dr Majid and Dr Dina Mohammed will make sure I have a job in South Texas. So I have no doubt.

Speaker 1: 39:30

And.

Speaker 3: 39:31

I know that I will be mentoring a lot of students with all my strategies and for them to stick with these two people right to get the right wisdom to applying to their program, and I think it will be an amazing program. I look forward to having you know great news come out of their program and I'm rooting for it too right, yeah, awesome.

Speaker 2: 39:49

Well, thank you so much. Uh, dr basong appreciate it. It was great talking to you after a very long time, yes, you've been a pioneer for our school, trailblazing into South Texas health system, creating student governments and whatnot, and I'm sure you're going to do the same in your career.

Speaker 3: 40:07

Absolutely, absolutely. Please do not forget me. With all the open houses and the webinars, call me anytime you need that extra support. I will be there as long as I have the time and even if I'm not there, please do give out my email so that students can ask me questions, because I have non-SJSM students messaging me as early as today asking me questions. Right, I have someone from India telling me she saw me on Instagram, so if they can be using me, then I encourage and give students to please use me for that purpose.

Speaker 2: 40:41

Absolutely, we will totally do that. We're working on a mentoring program, so we'll probably reach out to you for some advice. Okay, perfect, so we definitely will reach out to you.

Speaker 3: 40:52

Awesome, I'll be here.

Speaker 2: 40:54

Thank you so much, dr Basang. Your insights are obviously valuable. Obviously, we always talk about the emotional support system, but the way you painted it, it felt very real and, again, the biggest thing that we really want to thank you for is using all the tools that St James provides to the maximum benefit. I truly hope that students watch this episode and understand what they're supposed to do with the podcast, what they're supposed to do with all the support services that we provide. Again, thank you once again, thank you for your belief and trust in St James and we wish you all the best. Remember, if you liked the content on this channel, on this podcast, please give us a like and give us a follow it goes a long way for us and download more podcasts like this on any of your favorite platforms like Spotify, google Podcasts, etc. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 41:56

Thank you so much for tuning into our show. We hope you enjoyed another episode of Med School Minutes. If you like our content, please follow us and receive notification when a new show is posted. This podcast is brought to you by St James School of Medicine. For a video version of this podcast, please check us out on sjsmorg slash video.