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Message from Prof. Erik Holst Fund Dr. Konstantinos Roditis, MD, MSc
Chair, Prof. Erik Holst Fund Board of Directors
Haleema Munir
President, IFMSA-Pakistan
The Past, the Present, the Future: this year’s IFMSA March Meeting Theme echoes also Prof. Erik Holst Fund’s short, but promising history... Initiated back in 2011 in Copenhagen, Denmark, by an enthusiastic team of IFMSA Alumni, the Fund has already stepped in its 4th year of existence. So far, among many hardships and drawbacks, it finally started giving back to IFMSA “something for all that IFMSA has given” to its Alumni when they still were medical students... After Surendra Sapkota from Nepal last August, who attended the IFMSA GA in Ohrid, FYR Macedonia with the help of a Prof. Erik Holst Fund Scholarship, time has come for the 2nd Scholarship which has been awarded to a very promising medical student-leader from Pakistan, Ms. Haleema Munir! Listen to her story, as she describes her aspirations about her upcoming participation in the MM2016 in Malta: “While applying for this scholarship, I was very well aware of the tough competition that I would be facing by very competent applicants from all over the globe and so all I could do was to hope for the best. Seeing the email announcing the winner was one of the most exciting and memorable moments of my life. I was overjoyed at the very thought of meeting my IFMSA family from all around the globe.
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This opportunity for me to attend MM2016 will not only help me as an individual and enhance my skills as a culturally-aware professional, but it will also help my NMO, IFMSA-Pakistan, as I intend to spread out the training, wisdom and learning I’ll gain from this GA among the hundreds of members IFMSA-Pakistan who are unable to attend IFMSA General Assemblies. I would urge all true IFMSAians who wish to experience IFMSA firsthand to keep applying for Prof. Erik Holst Fund Scholarship. If you didn’t get selected the first time, you might get selected the next time you apply, just like me!” We all in the Fund’s Board of Directors, with the kind assistance of our Board of Trustees, will keep on fundraising for our Fund, only to be able to deliver more Scholarships to IFMSA members all over the world as well as the first-ever Erik Holst micro-grants to IFMSA projects. And of course, we will be for ever thankful to our wonderful Alumni colleagues for their incoming donations! Visit our webpage for more information at: erikholstfund.com !
Being the winner of Prof. Erik Holst Fund Scholarship for attending the March Meeting 2016 in Malta is all very exciting and thrilling, so much so that sometimes it even seems unreal. But more than that, it is an honor to have been selected by core IFMSAians-for-life to attend the hub of IFMSA magic. I am extremely thankful to the members of the Fund for selecting me and considering me worthy of this honor. Since my selection as the recipient of this scholarship, the members of the Fund have been in regular contact with me and they have been extremely cooperative to ensure smooth working of the technicalities. medical students worldwide | MM 2016, Malta