Entrepreneurship Day 2022

“Tough times never last, but tough people do”
- Dr. Robert Schuller

Perseverance and passion are part of the crucial qualities required to overcome hardships and setbacks to be a successful entrepreneur, as well as for healthcare worker. In order to boost and strengthen the traits among students, the Faculty of Medicine, UKM organised the Entrepreneurship Day on the 3rd of June 2022. The annual event involved undergraduates from the Medicine, Nursing, and Emergency Medicine course, which took place at the Preclinical Building. This year’s slogan; ‘Medicine and Healthcare: Creating Opportunities Through Entrepreneurship & Innovation’ proves that the medical field is not only confined to the classic diagnosis and treatment but has revolutionised and opened new possibilities in terms of

research and innovation, thus entering the business world.

Event objectives :

Increase knowledge and spark entrepreneurial spirit among students of Faculty of Medicine, UKM
Create awareness among students to view entrepreneurship as an alternative career pathway
Instill creativity and innovativeness in coming up with competitive business ideas
Encourage students to share their own ideas and exchange opinions with each other
Provide opportunities for students to obtain exposure and listen to experienced entrepreneurs with medical background to be able to relate better.
Provide an interesting platform for students to do pitching presentations to explain their business ideas.

Entrepreneurship Day was implemented to accomplish the Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship and Innovation course. Prior to the event, every small group of each incubator was required to design a poster creatively to present their business ideas. The winners were decided based on a combined tally of the judges score and number of likes received via the Entrepreneurship Day Official Instagram page.

During the day, the event started with a UKM entrepreneurial video showcase, followed by ‘Idea Pitching: Creative & Innovative Competition’. One group representing one incubator presented their business ideas and competed with representatives from other incubators. The pitching competition was eagerly awaited by the students and also the judges as we wanted to see creative and innovative ideas from our talented medical faculty students. There was so much interesting pitching with such gimmick that captivated the judges as well as the audience.

To open up the students’ perspective towards entrepreneurship, a forum on “Mencipta Kerjaya melalui Keusahawanan” was conducted and it was moderated by Vagish Krishnan, one of the students of FPer. The panellists were Puan Mariam Mohd Nasir, founder and also Director of M&T Network Consultancy Services Sdn. Bhd. and Dr. Hajah Rohani, the founder who used to be the Executive Chairwoman of ‘Kumpulan Profesional Kejururawatan’ which is a private training company for nurses in Malaysia. Currently, she holds the position as Principal Advisor for Syarikat Latihan Kejururawatan, M&T Sdn. Bhd. and Kejururawatan Upskill. It was an impressive and eye-opening discussion for young entrepreneurs, especially us, students from the Faculty of Medicine, UKM. After the forum, the event continued with a student sharing session, moderated by Saloni Ravichandran. They are such great role models for our students to enhance the passion towards entrepreneurship.

Panellist 1 : Calvin Tan Kai Wen

– a 4th year UKM medical student who does dropshipping business and has started a printing service at KTDI 1 as a part time job

Panellist 2 : Ong Zhi Zhung

– a 2nd UKM medical student, a recipient of ‘Entrepreneurship Grant FPER UKM 2021’ and owner of Power Up Academy (Online Tuition Centre)

Panellist 3 : Arif Norbani

– a 4th year medical student, involved in clothing and souvenir business

The panellists proved that they still can be actively involved in entrepreneurship activities despite their busy schedule as a medical student. Throughout the session, they shared their driving force which influenced them to immerse themselves into the journey, including the obstacles faced as well as how they managed to balance their studies and developing their business as a student entrepreneur concurrently.

Finally, the event had reached its peak and ended with the closing and prize-giving ceremony, marking the end of the Entrepreneurship Day 2022. The closing ceremony was officiated by the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine UKM, Professor Dr. Abdul Halim bin Abdul Gafar. In his speech, he emphasised that he was proud of the medical faculty students' participation throughout the event as it can nurture soft and social skills that will come in handy in their future undertakings.

The results of the competitions were as follow:

Best Stall Competition:

Fruit Rojak

E-Poster Competition

AT2S2 from Incubator 6
Kúb from Incubator 4
HealthYou.Co from Incubator 3

Pitching Competition

Power Stride from Incubator 5
Hospitify from Incubator 4
FoodDip.Co from Incubator 7

In a nutshell, we hope that events similar to this should be continued as it is greatly beneficial for students. Joining the event should not be solely to complete the course, but the students themselves ought to explore the entrepreneurship field willingly in order to consider it an option in choosing career pathways in the healthcare service. Be resilient and fearless to get out of our comfort zone. As long as we believe in ourselves and refuse to give up, nothing is really impossible.