Winjoy Nyariaki Tiop

Current City: Calgary, Alberta 

 Year arrived in Canada: 2005 

 School: University of Calgary 

 Academic Programs: BSc., Chemistry and Computer Science, Doctor of Medicine

 Occupation: Medical Student

1.      What inspired you to want to study medicine and become a doctor?

A big drive for me is to do international work, with girls within the South Sudanese community. Back in second year of undergrad, I was reading about the major causes of death in South Sudan, #1 being amputations, so limb loss. But #2, particularly for females within the community, is birth and delivery. So, I decided to go into the medical field and become an OB-GYN (obstetrician gynecologist). I plan to go back home and work with the United Nations or Doctors Without Borders to help with that crisis. It is one of those neglected areas. We are very under-resourced, I would say.

2.      Did learning about birth and delivery challenges back home push you towards becoming a doctor?

At a young age, my parents nudged me towards medicine, but this was a decision I made much later in life while at university. That is where I made my mind to pursue this medical school path.  We are constantly recalibrating our priorities. Understanding why we want to do something is important. It is a very long journey, so we really need to want it to persevere and see it through. It is still a job, after all.

3.      What are your main success factors throughout your academic journey? Most young people aspire to go to Medical School, but few achieve this dream like you have done. Inherent intellectual aptitude goes without saying.

Perseverance and focus. There is so much that goes on at university. So many activities to engage in. A lot of social events that you want to go to because your friends are going. So many distractions. But I had this big dream in front of me that I had to dedicate all my focus and efforts towards. I had to say no to a lot of things. Every decision has pros and cons, sometimes I feel like I missed out on my youth. You can still eke out some work life balance, but there are certain things you give up on this journey. I would say it was dedication and perseverance.

4.      How would you describe the impact your parents had in helping you achieve your medical school dream? Would you say you got more support from your parents compared to your Canadian-born classmates who did not come from deprived new immigrant households?

I would say I got less. My parents did support me in the best way they could, but they did not grow up in the Canadian system. So, they didn't have many ideas about what it takes to get into medical school. I needed to do volunteering and do research work. As well as prepping for the MCAT; knowing when to practice, how to practice. Those are things I had to go out there and seek by myself. I didn't have the support of my parents in those areas but I did have their emotional support. I could go and lean on them when things were challenging. For the actual steps to get into medical school, I had to figure them out by myself.

5.      How different is the Canadian cchool system compared to schooling back home? Home being Kenya and South Sudan in this case.

In East Africa, when you send your child to school, you trust that their teachers have your child’s best interest and will take them from point A to point B in their learning. But here, a child moving from point A to point B involves both parents and teachers playing a role. Parents need to know their children’s strengths, weaknesses and advocate for them every step of the way. There is a shift in mindset that needs to happen in our community. We just trust the school system here like we do back home. But here in the West, there is so much freedom. School administrators and teachers expect you to know what it is that you want. Teachers won't voluntarily direct or guide you to take a particular direction. Whatever you want to do has to be initiated by you. The school system assumes you know what's best for you. They can't really push you so much. They can only advise you about your options. Years back, university enrollment was limited in our community for this very reason. A big barrier was knowing what classes to take to get into university. A prime example is English 302. If you take it, even if you ace it, scoring higher than say 90%, you would still not qualify to get into university. It must be Dash1 stream if you are planning on going the university route. Many students didn't know that, so it led to them needing to upgrade after grade 12. Having to do upgrade while your peers were already in university, you felt defeated, so many just gave up.

6.      For someone to become a medical doctor, would you say finances are relevant? Does having or lacking money make a big difference in someone's journey to become a doctor?

Yeah, I think money is really a big factor when you are dreaming of medical school. I talked to some of my peers, who had surplus money to spend on MCAT prep, which is a big component of medical school application. MCAT is the medical school entrance exam and there are many prep companies where you can pay for one-on-one coaching. They guarantee you a certain score on the MCAT based on the support they give you.

Another example is volunteering. Some of my classmates were able to go to the Philippines for the whole summer to volunteer in orphanages. if you come from a low socio-economic family, that is not an opportunity available to you. Most of your summers are spend working so that you can support yourself throughout the school year. The expensive MCAT prep courses are out of reach. You cannot afford them. You are forced to stay at home and teach yourself through online content while maintaining extra jobs on the side to keep yourself afloat. So yes, money is a very big factor in your medical school success.

7.      If you didn't get into medical school, what would you say were the main factors that limited your ability to achieve that dream?

Responsibilities at home would have been the main limiting factors. I am the eldest of six kids and summers were spent working. And during my free time, if support was needed, I would be at home babysitting. I didn’t have any spare time to do all the volunteer activities I really wanted to do. But if you really want something, you can get it.

Canadian medical school applications are starting to broaden their application requirements now. Before, it was very narrow. You were valued if you had the flashiest volunteer opportunities, if you had the best grades, if you had the best MCAT scores. But now they are shifting to accommodate more life experiences. So, you can talk about your life experience. The challenges that are going on within your home environments that you had to overcome to enter medical school. Those things are starting to play a role within the application process. If you have certain things in your personal life that are holding you back, you can use them to strengthen your application. You can highlight the unique challenges within your home environment in your application.

8.      Did you have a mentor in your medical school journey? If so, how have they helped you to understand what it is that you need to do to be successful?

I've had many mentors that have supported me along this journey. My parents supported me with everything they had. Along the way, I have found mentors who have guided me. I have had various mentors, some of whom helped me establish a non-profit, Golden Mti, that helps black students in their journey through high school. I've had mentors who helped me with the application process to make it a non-profit and the application process to make it a University of Calgary club so that we have more tutors that are based within the university.

 In terms of research, getting exposure to early research was very challenging. I didn't understand what research was. I was more used to digesting knowledge rather than creating knowledge. So I've had mentors within the research space who have supported me to fine-tune my techniques and make me a more comfortable and confident researcher. Also, community support. Some connected me to different networks within Calgary to get free MCAT books and free MCAT prep support as well.

9.      Coming from an immigrant family and community, what unique factors hindered or helped your journey towards becoming a medical school student? If any?

There were some pros and there were also cons. Coming from an African immigrant family to Canada, the system here was very new. A lot of the information I gathered, I had to go out there and gather by myself. There are also cultural factors like being the eldest girl in an African immigrant home. That came with a lot of responsibilities that my white counterparts didn't necessarily have. Some of these factors hindered me. For example, I had little time to put into extracurricular activities because of responsibilities at home.

A pro is that we are very community-oriented, so there is a lot of support. Going through school, if you see another South Sudanese person, they always come up to you and you start to build a community at school. You start to share resources amongst yourself. It was beautiful.

10.  Now that you've gotten into medical school, what is it that you know now that you wish you had known when you were in Grade 12 studying science and dreaming about becoming a doctor? What is it that you know now about the process of getting into medical school that you wish you knew much earlier?

I think what I would tell my younger self is that the traditional pre-med journey isn't for everybody. I entered university, starting off in chemistry and made it to third year before realizing I didn't really like it. It was the pre-med route which entails studying basic sciences to make transition into Medical School easier. I learned after my third year that I didn't really like chemistry and going to classes was not an enjoyable experience. Fortunately, I did find a passion for computer science along the way. I was taking optional classes within computer science and decided to extend my degree by a year and qualified for a dual degree in chemistry and computer science.

I now know that you have to pursue what you are passionate about at the undergraduate level. You don't necessarily need to be a traditional medical sciences student to get into medical school. Choose whatever degree you are passionate about, whether in the arts, business or engineering. Anything that you like and stick to it. You'll enjoy it more and will be surprised to know that it doesn't hurt your medical school application.

11.  Growing up in Calgary, did you have any friends within our community when you were about 8-9-10 years old? Where are they now and what do you think shaped their experience to be where they are? What worked or didn't work for them?

Yes, I did.  It's very sad, but many of them did not end up going to university. I did grow up within our community in Calgary. Some fell into the trap where they took certain courses with the expectation of getting into university but didn't and had to upgrade. And because their peers were not upgrading, many of them gave up on the upgrading process. Some of them bought into the basketball career path. They really believed they were going to get into the NBA. They worked hard and went far in their basketball journey. But what matters is that they didn't make it into the NBA. Many of those who pursued that dream are on the street today. In Calgary, there is a place called Olympic Plaza that has a high rate of homeless members of our community, particularly the boys. And it is sad because years back, we were not visible on the streets. Now we are. It came to my attention after speaking to a few Calgary police officers. They told me that there is a visible number of homeless South Sudanese people in downtown Calgary. And I didn't believe it and had to go confirm myself. And yes, I saw some of my peers were there.

The professional basketball-NBA path was their plan A. No Plan B. And when it fell through, they had nothing to fall back on. It is easy to go into depression, which leads to substance abuse. I know a few who entered gang life and are now in jail serving time there. This is particularly challenging in our community. I think one of the main factors is that we come from dual-identity households. Young people want to be Canadian. But they don’t phenotypically fit the Canadian image. They then try to see themselves as South Sudanese and realize they don’t fit into the South Sudanese socio-cultural mould. So, the next closest thing they can tie themselves to is the African American identity. And that is why you see many young people in the diaspora taking entertainment career paths. It is not bad to make a living as an entertainer. But that is not the only thing we can be good at. We have the capacity to do so much more. Growing up in Canada, it doesn’t help that we hear the same chorus over and over since we were younger.

“You're so tall! You should play basketball.”

“You're so tall! You should be a model.”

“You’re so tall! You’re so tall!”

So, we naturally buy into whatever path we are nudged into. And when we don't make it, our hopes and dreams come crashing down. 

12.  What gets you excited about being a medical school student? What is it that you really enjoy about your day? What inspires you to get up on a Winter Monday morning?

I enjoy the course content. I'm really enjoying the set up at the University of Calgary. You have your course content, then you have clinical skills where you practice with actors that serve as patients. And then you also have an anatomy portion where you can go into a cadaver lab. You can see how the anatomy is laid out in a real body. I enjoy the anatomy portion and the clinical skills, the actual hands-on experiences. Those are the things that I really look forward to in my day. Also now, we have opportunities to shadow actual physicians and see their day-to-day interactions. I've been able to see some surgeries in real life and shadow a doctor attending to different patients. Yes, it has been an exciting process, overall. I think if you ask me later, my answer will probably change. But right now, it is very new experience. Everything is new. Keeping the excitement and momentum up has therefore been easy. 

13.  Given how everything has gone so far, would you say your aspirations have been met? What would you have wished to do differently?

Yeah, I think I'm. I'm very content right now with where I am in life. I'm enjoying medical school. I really like it. I took the time during my undergraduate days to really reflect on what I wanted and why I wanted it. I was set on going to medical school and it has happened. Through my experience and my exposure so far, I think this is where I'm supposed to be. So, I'm very much enjoying the experience.