#CelebratingEngagement: In conversation with Hamza Ikhlaq

Hamza Ikhlaq is a fifth year medical student at Imperial College London. He won a Student Award as part of the President's Awards for Excellence in Societal Engagement in 2022 for his work as part of WATCCH, an important project which aims to inspire young people to pursue a career in healthcare.

Hamza took time out of his incredible busy schedule to provide an insightful overview of his work, what he’s up to now, and why societal engagement is important to him.

Can you give an overview of the public engagement project you ran which won the award?

I was working with the Primary Care and Public Health team, and they have a scheme called WATCCH, which stands for Widening Access to Careers in Community Healthcare. Last year, I took on the student lead role, so I was coordinating committees and helping to engage students more in the West London area. During the year that I ran it, it was more of a local scheme because of COVID but we ended up reaching a few people from schools as far as Manchester!

The project aims to encourage students from backgrounds who might not typically go into higher education or healthcare to do so. Students explore different careers in healthcare besides the typical medical degree, discovering a range of careers and jobs that they might want to consider. We ran some online workshops, helping them with their personal statements, and interview practice.  We were gearing them up for the university application process, which for a lot of them is a big mystery. The process is quite convoluted and complex unless you have someone who is able to explain it to you, and we were helping them every step of the way to make sure that they have the support they needed.

Why do you think engagement is important and what do you think are the benefits of this?

I'm a medical student and if there's one thing we particularly know about doctors it’s that they don't currently represent the populations they serve. For me this was very evident when I was applying for medicine because I'm from a non-traditional background that doesn't really go to higher education and particularly don’t go onto study degrees like medicine. For me, the reason why I got involved in WATCCH was because I managed to make it into medical school, and this was my chance to give back and actually make sure that some of the barriers that I struggled with others don't have to, and that's what the scheme is there for.

On a wider level, I think it’s so important that places like Imperial capture the talent that’s evident in the local area and we bring this into institutions like the College rather than keeping it for the select few.

We need resilient people who can overcome challenges, and there are very bright individuals that just need to be given the opportunity. I think engagement ultimately means that we're giving people a chance, and that's the reason why I absolutely love doing it.

What advice would you give students at Imperial who want to engage more with their audiences?

My first piece of advice is to remember that you already have a platform as a student here. You managed to make it through despite all the barriers so already you can think about how you want to utilise that platform, whether that’s through setting up a project with your peers or otherwise.

Try building something with those around you by reaching out to staff members or people that you know are interested in projects like this. It's great because not only can they mentor you and guide you, but they can also amplify your voice as well.

We've seen how effective it is when students get together for the clubs and societies through the Union. We can make a lot of change and we can create environments with people who feel like they can be themselves and achieve their full potential.

What’s happened since you won the award?

I’ve taken on the role of Welfare Chair for the Imperial College School of Medicine Student Union, as the award made me want to keep going. It was nice to be recognised for the work that I had been doing, but of course, that wasn't the aim for me. When the department nominated me, it came as a big surprise. After getting the recognition from the award, I realised people really care about this work – it’s not just something that’s important to me. So it's inspired me to carry on.

There's a habit that we've got as medics, that as soon as we transition into our final years of study and the work becomes more intense, we focus more heavily on our studies. But I didn't want to do that. I wanted to do more alongside my studies and carry on giving back.

I took on this current role and I still work within the department to try and provide an overview and help with the schemes. I actually delivered one of the workshops for WATCCH recently.

The department is helping me with some research that I'm doing in terms of helping to understand more about the experiences of minorities - it is nice to be able to use my experiences to amplify the voices of those around me.

So not only has the award inspired me to continue supporting students but it has also encouraged me to think about a future in academia, which could be used as a form of advocacy.

Are you interested in nominating a colleague, student or an inspirational partner who has gone above and beyond to support the development of societal engagement at Imperial? Please read our guidance and submit your nomination!