OzTREKK student named Regional Student of the Year

JCU Medical School student (and former OzTREKKer!) Reuben George has been named Regional Student of the Year at the 2017 Study Queensland IET Excellence Awards! The IET Excellence Awards recognise international education industry leaders, community and business contributors and current and past international students for their achievements.

These high achievers were celebrated at an awards ceremony held Nov. 22, 2017.

The IET Excellence Awards are the only state-wide awards program specifically dedicated to recognising the Queensland international education and training sector and celebrate individual and team success.

Having recognised the importance of support for international students studying medicine, Reuben has worked tirelessly throughout his studies to ensure his fellow international students felt supported and welcomed.

From his own journey of moving to Australia, Reuben recognized that there were very limited supports for international students in the medical program. He decided it was his duty to help guide all future incoming international students.

Reuben has since created an international student manual, which the university provides to each incoming international student. He also lobbied to co-create a mentorship program funded by the JCU College of Medicine and student medical society. This program partners each international medical student with an upper-year international student to support them through their transition of moving to a new country and entering a highly demanding degree. The program involves having coffee catch-ups and weekly social media mental health check-ins, group activities, and peer tutoring for free.

Reuben ensures each student feels heard and he encourages all to be leaders. His passion for international students’ health and well-being is what spurred many of the upper-year students to become mentors themselves.

The current JCU med student’s experience landed him the role of Australian Medical Students Association’s International Chair in 2016, representing all international medical voices across the country.

Reuben does all of this work not for himself, but so that no student feels as isolated as he did in his first year. He wants to help give international students a hand up and achieves this through his many platforms, including his vlog, “Beyond the Stethoscope,” (below) where he captures his life as a medical student and the many challenges and triumphs that come with it.
Congratulations, Reuben, from all of us at OzTREKK!

About JCU Medicine

The 6-year, full-time MBBS degree is a comprehensive program with integrated instruction in biomedical sciences, professional practice and clinical medicine. Graduates will be uniquely qualified in the fields of rural, remote and Indigenous health, and tropical medicine.

Program: Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery
Location: Townsville, Queensland
Next semester intake: February 2019
Duration: 6 years
Application deadline: TBA. Generally the end of August each year.

Apply to JCU Medical School!