Opportunity of a lifetime for Qatari high school students

July, 2013

Three Qatari high school students spent a fortnight in New York learning about the medical profession after winning Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar’s (WCMC-Q) annual Healing Hands essay competition.

Kholoud Essa Abu-Holayqah, Naima Abdulrahman Alobaidli and Salah Majid Mahmoud arrived at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York on July 1 and spent two weeks conducting biomedical research and treating patients under the tutelage of Dr. Ronald Crystal, professor and chairman of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell.

The opportunity was great experience for 16-year-old Kholoud, of Al Bayan Education Complex for Girls in Doha, who has her heart set on becoming a doctor. “I enjoy learning about the human body,” she said. “It’s the portal to understanding the world.”

For Naima, 15, a student at the DeBakey High School for Health Professionals at Qatar in Doha, the trip was a chance to evaluate whether a career in medicine is the right path for her.

“This experience was valuable to me because I got to know whether I want to be a doctor or not through this,” she said. “I got to experience what people are doing, how they are working and what life will be like as a doctor. This was the key to me.”

The students won their places on the trip by impressing the panel of expert judges of WCMC-Q with the essays they wrote for the Healing Hands competition, now in its sixth year. Writing to the theme ‘Caring Without Borders’, the students were asked to imagine how they would ensure the health of victims of an imagined humanitarian crisis.

During the two weeks in New York the students learned basic laboratory skills such as pipetting and aseptic techniques, as well how to culture cells and monitor their growth. They also had the chance to join Dr. Crystal while he conducted his hospital rounds and to observe a bronchoscopy.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime for these three winners,” said Dr. Javaid Sheikh, dean of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. “To be so young, yet to be welcomed into a professional research laboratory is an experience they will never forget.”

Salah, 15, a student at Qatar Academy, was in full agreement.

He said: “This experience was very important to me because it taught me a lot of knowledge, which I can take back and expand through various different fields. This lab was very kind and generous to me, and everything I learned there is really going to help me in the future.”

The dedication of the students impressed Dr. Crystal, who added: “The families should be really proud of these students - they are really great.”