“Being a medical student isn’t just about studying…”
An exclusive interview with Low Zhi Yeow
Low Zhi Yeow is a first-year medical student who actively enrols himself in a myriad of co-curricular activities in spite of the heavy syllabus as a future doctor. He is the current secretary of MMI Young Medics and has been very active in other organisations and programmes as well. On top of that, he is a JPA scholar.
“It was an interesting story on why I would decide to join MMI Young Medics (MMIYM).”
Zhi Yeow learned about this organisation when he was in his pre-university education. During that time, he applied to be their College Ambassador in hope that he could explore more about the medical field as he was still uncertain about whether he should pursue this course back then but eventually he did not get chosen, unfortunately. However, his pride told him that he would come back next year to apply to be the main committee, and he did!
He also mentioned that he did not regret doing so at all! He met many amazing people from the team and learned a lot from them. There are several events that they have to execute throughout the tenure and seeing everyone working together on the same goal is what Zhi Yeow loves to see. As the Logistics Director of Making An Informed Decision (MAID) 2022, he learned to lead a team for the very first time as a Head of Department. Managing a team requires a lot of leadership and communication skills and it takes effort to build a team and gather everyone to work on something together. Other than that, he was also involved in events including Webinar 5.0 and Getting Into Medical School (GIMS) 2022.
"I grow a lot and that makes me feel like what I am doing is worthy especially when I saw my team’s hard work paid off during the event day.”
Besides MMI Young Medics, Zhi Yeow also joins the Asian Medical Students’ Association Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (AMSA UKM) as one of the Academic & Research Officers. Through the position, he was given the opportunity to be the Director of an event under the department in collaboration with PERSIAP, the Bioethics, Interfaith and Spiritual Symposium (BISS) 2022 that had just been executed on the 4th of June this year. It was his first time being the director of an event. It was definitely challenging to oversee the whole team with so many departments, and there are times I struggle but, in the end, he gained a lot from it.
Q &A
What are the reasons supporting you to be such an active person in these?
Zhi Yeow always admires leaders who can perform excellently, and that is why he likes to be enrolled in different organisations and activities, not to stand out from the crowd, but to sharpen his soft skills and become a better person.
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“If you know me for a long time, you will know that I used to have very weak soft skills. Through joining activities, I am exposed to a lot of new things and great people, learn how they think, the ways they do work, and deal with various issues. I learned to think from the other's point of view, and how I get a whole new perspective whenever I am solving a problem. This is why I love to try new things, shape myself better and help me to grow into a better person. Only when you realise how much you have grown throughout the process, you would be grateful for stepping out and sacrificing your time to be active in the activities.”
Tips on time management
Zhi Yeow mentioned that he is also still learning to balance his studies and activities, but it gets better when you challenge yourself with a more and more hectic schedule. When you have a hectic schedule, you will realise how much more effective you can be in completing tasks without all the time to procrastinate. However, do always make sure you do not get too stressed out as it will give out the opposite results.
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Some of his tips on time management include not procrastinating and completing the tasks given to you as soon as possible. When you procrastinate, your undone tasks get piled up, and eventually, you will not be able to cope with it. Learning to prioritise things by differentiating between important and less important tasks is crucial too to prevent us from spending too much time on less useful things. You have to let go of unimportant things such as watching movies to fit that time with all your activities, but it really depends on individuals on how important they are to them, so it is up to you to decide whether it is worth it to do so. For instance, Zhi Yeow cherishes his time hanging out with his friends a lot, so he would definitely leave a slot for that.
Future plans
Zhi Yeow admitted being active in different activities makes him exhausted, but he truly knows that he is not a person who could sit down and only study every day. Hence, in terms of his future plan, he would probably continue to commit to other activities, but he might try new things too as we grow from learning new things. He might decide to utilise my time to pick up a new skill instead of joining events if that will be what he wishes to do in the future.
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“There will be times when you will doubt whether what you are doing is worth it, especially when you have to make sacrifices, and when you feel like no one understands or supports you. However, I will say just go for it if it is what you are living for. You certainly don’t have to be like me because you just have to be yourself, live a life that you love, and do what you like to do.”
“Being a medical student isn’t just about studying…”
In his opinion, the components that a medical student should have are quite similar to what an ordinary person should have. Being a medical student is not merely studying and learning the hard skills, equipping yourself with soft skills is important too.
