EDI Year In Review
Written By Amman Ahmed
Imagine a great oak door that extends past your head twice over, adorned with carvings that speak of a history that stretches through pandemics, strikes and stories that started and ended before you could take a breath. Watch as the door strides along its hinge, softly speaking with the same weight as a grandparent rising from an armchair. As the dust flitters down to the ground, settling on a well-worn rug you step in, hesitantly, but excited. Around you are spiralling shelves, going around and around and around the never-ending walls, each dedicated to the protection of their charge. Nestled in the clutches of the shelves are hats. Lots and lots of hats.
Medical school offers you a degree, but as you pass through the years you are also offered the opportunity to reach to those shelves and try on a hat. It doesn’t fit? Try another! You want more? Try another! You’re bored? Try another! The wonderful magic of having so many intense and driven people in one room is that every hat gets worn in some sort of combination. All this is to say, one of the hats I have had the privilege of wearing this year has been that of the student EDI Co-Chair.
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Like RUMS Review, the student equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) network exists as a “RUMs Network”, floating out of reach of the Student Union, but also in a quiet corner of the much larger RUMs Society. There’s a kneejerk reaction to think that EDI is something performative or pretentious, but I truly think that our corner is one of the more cosy and insightful spaces that the medical school has to offer. But being tucked away has the disadvantage of our successes being lost in the noise, so I’d like to run through them in a sentimental ‘year in review’.
On Examination
The On Examination (OE) podcast has a special place in my heart as it is both my personal pet-project and the first EDI creation I got involved in as a Year 2 student. OE is a podcast that brings together medical students and medical professionals for honest and real conversations about anything in an EDI domain. Our first season features Dr Abdu and Dr Kalvo, discussing faith and neurodivergence respectively. Within this season we also discussed spousal death, race, single-parenting and finding love. The first magic of EDI is realising it can be anything.
A lot of the main forms of “output” that societies produce tend to be transient - conferences, speaker events, workshops. Being able to make something that lasts in the digital world is both frightening and exciting. It’s proof carved into the great door that we were here and made something that allows those conversations to exist between time and people. Even if Dr Abdu or Kalvo aren’t at UCL in a decade, their wisdom can live on and support other students.
Seen & Heard
Seen & Heard (S&H) taught me that permanence can be born through ways other than a digital footprint. S&H is our panel series, helmed by my lovely Co-Chair Yuqing Cao. We brought together medical professionals for discussions in queerness, heritage and faith. Our first event thrived on the existing dynamic between the UCLMS graduates in the panel. Our second was exciting because the age disparity between panellists presented with disputes in their perceptions of identity and labels. Our final event was the most powerful, bringing multiple people in the room to tears from the vulnerability being shared. This final session really stuck with me because it exemplified the second magic of ED:- storytelling. The core principles of EDI are all rooted in experiences which become stories that we tell, first to vent, but later to teach. The stories are what stick with us when we run into situations that can’t be solved with textbook teaching.
With every one of these events I was worried about turnout. These worries were justified, yet I was also wrong to worry. I think the third magic of EDI is that quality is truly better than quantity. Knowing that each person in the audience chose to be present from genuine interest gives a room a different atmosphere, transforming the dynamic that unfolds. While it would be great to say “50 people showed up to my event!”, I think there’s a real wonder to be able to look at the five faces in the room and know you all shared that moment.
rePRESENT Conference
This review wouldn’t be complete without mention of our annual conference. Dreamt up by a previous EDI lead, the conference aims to deliver a day of EDI themed talks and workshops. This year we focused on physical disability, with the tagline of “Striving Ahead” to capture a sense of hope.
At first I was quietly worried that we had selected something overdone or uninteresting, but again I was wrong. It was actually when speaking with Dr Ramadas, who delivered a workshop on paediatric physical disability in radiology, that I appreciated what we were doing. Making his presentation had been enlightening to himself, allowing him to think deeply about topics that can often get lost in the noise of medicine. The fourth magic of EDI is that it’s the quiet, little things that can make all the difference.
And many more
We began this year collaborating with the RUMs Welfare and Equity teams to launch a survey regarding the new attendance policy. This produced some successful change, with new clarity on religious exemptions being added to the guidelines. In February we met with the UCLMS directorate to present our final report and further discussions are in place.
This year we also absorbed the LGBTQ+ Medics network, saving their perfect streak of yearly welcome events. Not only did we preserve tradition with the annual launch event, but under the leadership of Sakshi Runwal a “paint and sip” event was held, producing some really powerful art. Eating up the network was an important way to retain the work done years ago to get it into place, honouring their legacy while preparing something to outlive our time in the EDI.
As much as I hate to say it, the final magic is absolutely the friends we made along the way. Medical school is difficult and will always throw something new at you. Having a hand to catch you on the way down is worth a lot. As I began my clinical years I encountered doctors and situations that made me question if I could make it through the week, let alone the next three years. Being part of the EDI network gave me people to talk to who could understand and support me. It gave me staff who could flag problems or direct me onward with more than a faceless email. It meant that when I felt alone on the wards I could remember that I was part of something bigger that could change things.
If you are interested in joining the EDI, drop us a message at @UCLMS_EDI on Instagram and we (probably me) will be in touch.
Read the rest of the edition here.