For our latest Students’ Corner article submission we asked entrants to write us a piece about ‘EAN Student Membership‘. As always, we received lots of great submissions, which the EAN Student Task Force reduced down to three winners. Here we present those winning essays. Happy reading!
My Journey as a Student Member of the European Academy of Neurology
by Farhood Jahanshahloo, 4th year medical Student, Iran
As a medical student with a keen interest in neurology, becoming a Student Member of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) has been a transformative experience. The EAN has provided me with a platform to learn, grow, and connect with professionals in the field of neurology.
The Benefits I’ve Experienced
EAN Student Membership has offered me numerous benefits that have enriched my academic journey:
Access to resources: the EAN provides a wealth of resources, including access to the European Journal of Neurology and various educational materials. These resources have been invaluable in supplementing my coursework and expanding my knowledge.
Networking opportunities: attending the EAN’s annual congress has given me the chance to meet and learn from leading neurologists from around the world. The insights and advice I’ve gained from these interactions have been instrumental in shaping my career aspirations.
Professional development: the EAN offers various training and learning opportunities, including webinars, online courses, and workshops. These have helped me stay up to date with the latest developments in neurology and hone my skills.
My Achievements in the Past Year
Over the past year, my membership of the EAN has enabled me to achieve several milestones:
Presentation at the annual congress: I had the opportunity to present my research at the EAN’s annual congress. This experience not only honed my presentation skills but also provided me with constructive feedback from seasoned professionals.
Networking: I’ve built a robust network of peers and mentors in the field of neurology. These connections have opened up new opportunities for collaboration and learning.
My Future Goals as an EAN Member
As I look to the future, I have set several goals for my continued involvement with the EAN:
Further research: I plan to leverage the resources provided by the EAN to conduct further research in neurology. I’m particularly interested in exploring the genetic factors influencing neurodegenerative diseases.
Leadership roles: I aim to take on leadership roles within the EAN, such as joining committees or organising events. This will allow me to contribute to the neurology community and gain valuable leadership experience.
Continued learning: I intend to make full use of the EAN’s educational offerings to continue expanding my knowledge and skills in neurology. In conclusion, my journey as a Student Member of the EAN has been incredibly rewarding. I look forward to what the future holds and how my involvement with the EAN will continue to shape my career in neurology.
The Academy that Expands Our Horizons
by Ipek Duysak, 5th year medical student, Turkey
About two years ago, in January 2022, as a medical student who had just started clinical rotations, I discovered the European Academy of Neurology driven by my curiosity for neurology. Believing that becoming a student member of the EAN would contribute to enhancing my knowledge and skills in neurology by providing access to various resources and conferences, I submitted the necessary documents to the EAN, expressing my specific interest in neurology. Subsequently, I received an email confirming the approval of my student membership. This is how my story started.
After my EAN story began, I naturally utilised the opportunities provided by the website. I could access new articles on neurology, but one of the most intriguing features for me was the fantastic student corner where medical students from different countries come together, expressing their thoughts and sharing information about neurology. I could never have known how much this would motivate me.
One day, I received an email from the EAN suggesting that we could write an article about our “Favourite part of the Brain” and I prepared an article about “corpus callosum,” one of the parts that fascinated me the most. Then, I received an email confirming the acceptance of my article, which would be published on the EAN blog, EANpages. I had never written an article about our brain before; this was the first time my writing had appeared on an international platform. This truly motivated me because perhaps my article had been read by current medical students who are future colleagues or neurology experts from different countries. Since then, my interest in neurology has increased.
Also, the student teaser fellowship offered by the EAN caught my attention, but I didn’t apply at that time. However, reading the experiences of students who applied and won the student teaser fellowship on the EAN website was very inspiring for me. To improve myself, I applied to a few hospitals in Austria for a summer neurology internship and was accepted and did my internship for one month. Most of the neurology doctors at the hospital I went to were members of the EAN. I think that having a neurology organisation like the EAN in Europe is valuable in creating a very effective network and knowledge sharing platform for neurologists from many different countries. I can honestly say that I feel very fortunate to became an EAN student member, as it provides inspiring content for students on this platform and broadens our horizons. As an example from my own experience, I used to listen to music while going to the hospital, but since I discovered EAN podcasts, I occasionally listen to them during times when I don’t listen to music. This way, I have gained general information about many sub-branches of neurology.
As a student, there are still things I want to do at the EAN. This includes participating in more student corner tasks, attending the Helsinki congress to listen to the presentations of valuable neurologists, and considering participating in existing scientific panels as a student. Additionally, if an event is organised where students can have a say about brain health and create awareness, I would like to be a part of it.
Thank you for reading my short EAN journey. Who knows, maybe this article will inspire our new student friends, just like I joined EAN two years ago.
EAN Student Membership
by Stella Goeschl, 6th year medical student, Austria
I remember discovering the EAN for the first time. Very early on in medical school, when I was only just learning what a medical guideline was, I went on the search for guidelines in neurology on the internet. I did a quick Google search – I must have typed something along the lines of “guidelines neurology” into the search box. What popped up was the website of the EAN, complete with a link to the EAN Guideline Reference Centre, which I followed. “If you are an EAN member, please sign in for full access to the Guideline Reference Centre”, read the banner on the webpage.
I remember my awe as I slowly grasped that there was all this high-quality content accessible to me on this website I had just happened upon through a Google search. I remember my fascination at my first confrontation with the concept of a professional society; this place where people gathered to exchange knowledge and experience in my specialty of interest. It was all I could have wanted and more. It was a quick decision to head towards the sign-up area. And it was there, in the membership section, where I became aware that I could join as a student member. This little instance, the curiosity that led me to interrupt my study session to go one step further and search for professional guidelines in neurology, is how I joined the EAN.
Being a student member of the EAN has opened up new perspectives to me that I could not
have accessed otherwise. Being able to access the high-level material stored in the vastness of EAN’s resources, guideline reference centre, and its learning platform EANcampus, all through a simple web log-in has enabled me to learn more, beyond the scope of my curriculum, and to educate myself on specific topics I desired an increased focus on. Here, one is learning directly from the voices of neurology in Europe, the professionals that make up this network. Joining the EAN congress as a student and meeting motivated peers there has been one of the highlights of my EAN student membership experiences. In addition to attending a thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating educational event, exchanging thoughts with fellow students and experiencing the conference together has added a whole new layer to the conference for me. Meeting fellow students at EAN events means building a horizontal network of future colleagues and friends.
Lastly, as a member of the EAN Student Taskforce, I have been lucky to have had the opportunity to actively work towards the implementation of student activities in the academy. Promoting student involvement and seeing ideas and plans come to fruition to improve the experience of an EAN student member has been personally fulfilling to me.
Being a student member of a professional society feels in many ways daunting, and in others very special. To be able to observe from just the slightest distance everything that an association such as the EAN is made up of, before fully joining the proceedings as a professional oneself, feels like being allowed a sneak peek into the future. Being an EAN student member has been extremely valuable, and has, for me personally, made a great impact on my medical school trajectory.
Looking on towards the end of medical school, and thus the end of my student membership time, I feel reassured that I will be welcomed by the EAN community into the next phase of my professional career, this time as an RRFS member.
