Aggrey Burke Fellowship Information Evening Webinar 2026

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the RC Psych Agriber Burke Fellowship information webinar. Um, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the webinar this evening.

So, just to introduce myself, my name is Dr. Declan Highland. I'm the college's associate dean for Chief Psychiatry, and I'm also heavily involved with the Agriberg Fellowship. So, I'll be chairing the webinar this evening.

So, we've just got a few housekeeping rules to go through prior to commencing with our talk this evening. So, um, we obviously want to ensure there's plenty of time for you to ask any questions that you've got about the Agriberg Fellowship. So, please do ask away and please use the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen for asking any questions. If you put your questions in the chat function, we may miss them. So, we will try and make sure we get through as many questions as we can. If we can't answer all of your questions during the course of the webinar, we will do our best to answer the remaining questions and put the answers on the college website. So, feel free to put your questions in the Q&A box at any time over the next hour.

Just to note that the application for the Agriberg Fellowship will open tomorrow at midday, and that will be on the college website, www.rcpsych.ac.uk. I'm sure details will be posted using the chat function.

Just to give you an idea of the program for the webinar. So, we're very fortunate this evening to be joined by one of our current Agriberg fellows, Elsie, as well as one of our former Agriberg fellows, one of our inaugural Agriberg fellows, Daniel. And Daniel's mentor as well, Dr. Ify Amechi, has kindly agreed to join us as well to talk a little bit about her experience of being a mentor to an Agriberg fellow.

So, I'm going to start off with a very short presentation before I introduce my fellow speakers. So, I'm just going to share my screen and bring up my slides. So, hopefully, you'll be able to see my presentation. Okay. So, from the beginning, hopefully that has appeared. Okay. Are the slides moving? Okay.

>> Yes, they're fine, Declan.

>> Thank you very much. Yeah. So, we'll hear from Elsie, and we'll hear from Daniel as well, and then Ify will give us a little bit of an overview from a mentor perspective, and then we've got sort of at least 15 minutes for questions and answers. So, do feel free to post your questions. Okay. So, I'm just going to advance the slides. Okay.

So, what is the Agriber Burke Fellowship? Well, I suspect that many of you may not have even heard of Agri Burke, actually. And Agri Burke is significant in the history of psychiatry and the history of the Royal College of Psychiatrists because he was actually the first black psychiatrist employed in the NHS, and he had a particular interest in and specialized in transcultural psychiatry. And one of the things that he did over the course of his clinical career was looking at carrying out extensive research on the role of racial discrimination in psychiatric disorders. So, we were absolutely delighted to be able to set up the fellowship in Agri's honor. And it was a great pleasure to meet Dr. Burke, actually, myself, at the college a year ago. Very sadly, passed away fairly recently. And the college was incredibly touched by his family's wishes. Actually, the donations were sent to the Agriberg Fellowship and people who were wishing to donate in memory of Dr. Agriberg. So, we owe Dr. Burke a great deal, and I know he was really pleased to be able to meet the Agriberg fellows from the first cohort and to meet with the college officers, including our president, Lade Smith, as well. So, it was a real great pleasure to meet Agri.

So, we currently have three Agriber Burke fellows for each cohort. So, it's a two-year scheme, and that's one of the ways in which it differs from the Psychstar scheme that you may have also heard of. So, with the Agri Bert Fellowship, they're actually two years. So, we'll run from the 1st of September 2026 to the 31st of August 2028. And of course, I think having that two years gives a little bit more time to think carefully about what you want to achieve over the course of the fellowship and how you might achieve those goals.

What are the benefits of the scheme? Well, I think probably the most important one of all, and the one that certainly the students seem to feedback as being the one they enjoy most, is the opportunity to be mentored. And I think this is invaluable, particularly as a medical student, to have access to a mentor, and specifically a mentor that is matched to your areas of interest and or your geography as well, in terms of which UK medical school you're studying at. So, we try and match the mentors as best we can to where it is that you're actually placed in terms of which UK medical school and what your specific areas of interest within psychiatry are. But also, we have an introduction evening at the college as well, and that's, you know, it's a great opportunity to meet with the other two sites, the other two Agri fellows that are appointed, as well as the Psychstars, because the Psychstars come along as well. And it's a lovely opportunity to actually visit the college if you've never been to the college before. We hope it'll be the first of many times that you come to the college and to meet with our college officers as well.

One of the great benefits is the opportunity to attend the flagship annual event of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which is the International Congress, which is being held in Liverpool this year from the 15th to the 18th of June. So, we have the International Congress every year, and as an Agriber fellow, you will have free attendance at all four days, and that will include accommodation expenses and travel expenses as well. Great opportunity to hear about cutting-edge research, international speakers, and probably most importantly, to meet like-minded medical students who are similarly interested in psychiatry and to do a little bit of networking and hopefully present an e-poster or two.

But there are also academic benefits as well, in terms of access to CPD. So, you'll have access to the college's CPD e-learning modules, and there are about 180 of these, and about 90 podcasts, as well as access to MRC Psych e-learning, which are the resources that our core trainees in psychiatry, resident doctors in training, will use for their membership exams. So, if you want to get ahead of the game, or you're really interested in a specific mental disorder and want to learn more about it, the MRC Psych e-learning will be very helpful in that regard. And then, if you've got a specific interest in accessing academic journals, you will have free subscription to various journals, including the British Journal of Psychiatry, the Yellow Journal, and the BJ Psych Bulletin as well.

And perhaps one of the other great perks of the Agribert Fellowship is the CPD fund. So, you will be allocated £1,500 over the course of the two years for you to be able to attend any conferences or courses or events of interest. So, that may be in any area of psychiatry, or you may use that money towards a special study module in psychiatry, or an elective in psychiatry, or perhaps purchasing psychiatry textbooks that are going to be really helpful for you once you start your foundation training and certainly your core training as well. And your mentor is always available for advice around how you might want to spend your CPD fund. And we would absolutely encourage you to spend every penny of that £1,500 over the course of the two years.

So, what about the eligibility criteria then? So, in order to be eligible, you should be of one of the following categories of ethnicity: Black African, Black British, Black Caribbean, or Black Other. Okay. You need to be enrolled as a medical student at a UK university. So, unfortunately, it's UK campuses only, and you need to be enrolled at a UK medical school at the start of each fellowship year, so i.e., 1st of September 2026 and 1st of September 2027. It is okay for you to be intercalating. So, you may be doing either about to go into your intercalating year or thinking about doing an intercalation one year into the scheme. That's quite okay, that is permissible. You must be a current student associate of the college. And I'm sure Katrina will put details in the chat box about how you can become a student associate of the college if you're not already one of them. It's free to join, do join the college as a student associate.

So, what are the expectations in terms of being an Agriber fellow? Well, what we always like is for you to attend the introduction event at the start of the scheme. And I think that's important, really, because it's an opportunity not only for you to meet the other medical students that are also going to be Agriberg fellows for that two years, but it's also a lovely opportunity to meet with medical students from across the UK with an interest in psychiatry. So, you'll get to meet the Psychstars. We invite our star mentors and Agri mentors to come down as well. So, sometimes it's a nice opportunity to meet with your mentor for the first time, and I think importantly as well, it helps you to establish that link with the college. And I'm conscious as a medical student, you may well have never attended the college, and it's a lovely opportunity to meet the president of our college and our college officers as well. I know they really enjoy coming along to the introduction event.

We ask you to make contact with your mentor in the very early stages of the scheme, and ideally within the first couple of weeks. And it's important you set up that initial meeting so that you can think together a little bit about a plan in terms of what you want to do over the next two years and maybe think about setting some objectives and some timelines. And as with any scheme, you get out what you put in in relation to this. And your mentor will be really keen to support you with accessing opportunities, clinical experiences, or contacts, or networking opportunities, but also providing you with that advice perhaps around career guidance, you know, where you might want to go for your elective, why you might choose a certain subspecialty in psychiatry, etc. So, they're very much there to provide you with support and advice throughout the two years of the scheme.

Now, I'm conscious that sometimes with the mentors, they're not necessarily as close to where you may be studying at medical school as we might like. So, it's important that you maintain that regular contact through email, use of MS Teams or Zoom, etc. You may want to set up virtual meetings, or it might be you're able to set up face-to-face meetings. I think it's always lovely if you can try and meet face-to-face, but I appreciate that's not always that easy with busy clinical schedules that we all have. And as students, you'll be on placement potentially 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., so it can be difficult.

One of the things I do like to do is catch up with the Agriber fellows. So, three times a year, I arrange to meet up virtually with our Agriber fellows just to kind of see how things are going, you know, to find out a little bit about what projects you're involved with or what your plans may be, and of course, as well, to sort of iron out any potential difficulties or issues that any of you guys are having. Though, of course, we have the careers team at the college that are able to support with any admin queries or issues on a day-to-day basis.

We would expect you to attend the International Congress, and we do hold a bursary holders' session at Congress. We normally do this as a breakfast on day two of Congress, and again, it's a lovely opportunity to meet face-to-face, not least for myself to meet with you guys face-to-face, but also each other and the Psychstars as well. And I think importantly, we want you guys to be ambassadors for psychiatry and ambassadors for the Agriberg Fellowship. You know, the Agriberg Fellowship was only set up fairly recently. You know, we're now on our second cohort, so we're really keen to see this initiative grow and increase in popularity. So, we really want you guys to be ambassadors for the scheme. Tell your friends about it, encourage them to apply, support them to apply with future cohorts. And we may well ask you to write articles or give presentations. It's a great opportunity for you to sort of provide your own thoughts about the scheme and how it's helped you and perhaps how it's cemented your views about a career in psychiatry.

We are hopeful of doing an evaluation of the scheme as well, and I think this is a really important aspect of the Agribert Fellowship scheme because we recognized the need to create a scheme like this so that black medical students had opportunities and access to clinical experiences that they might not get otherwise. So, one of the things we may ask you to do is to participate in some sort of evaluation scheme for up to five years after the fellowship finishes.

In terms of the application process itself, so as I said, the application window opens tomorrow at midday. It's going to stay open for a significant period of time, so until Monday the 27th of April at midday. So, you've got plenty of time to think about your application. Maybe go away and draft some answers, get some advice or feedback on the answers that you've come up with for the questions that form the application form. Do think very carefully about the college's values and behaviors when completing your application, and these can be found on the Royal College Psychiatrists website. So, it's one of the things that we consider when we're scoring applicants in terms of their answers to the questions asked as part of the application. So, have a think about the college's values and behaviors. See how you can weave them into your answers and how you can demonstrate that you live the college's values and behaviors. That's a really important aspect.

We recognize that AI can be helpful. We do expect all applications to be original and authentic, and we want this to be honest and truthful and reflective of your own experiences and qualifications and your own writing style as well. So, by the same token, if you do use AI to support your application or to help you produce your application, please do explain this. Please let us know so that we're aware of the fact that you have used AI.

And what we will do is we will score all of the applicants, and then we will shortlist applicants, and there will be a panel of us doing that, myself included. And what we will then do is we will hold some interviews as part of the second selection stage, and those interviews will be done remotely. So, they'll be done virtually. You won't have to travel to the college.

So, in terms of the application itself, there are several questions you need to answer as part of your application. So, what do you hope to gain from the fellowship? And consider how you would use your CPD fund, and think very carefully about this. And I think the one piece of advice I would give is try to be multi-dimensional in your response to that. Try not to get focused on just one project you would use the CPD fund. It's great to hear of different things you would want to do with that money and what you'd want to do from the fellowship as well. Describe a situation with a patient which made you reflect. Now, that doesn't need to be a patient that you've encountered in a psychiatric setting because I appreciate that not all of you will have done your psychiatric placement. Some of you may be early years, pre-clinical students. You're perfectly eligible to apply for the Agribert Fellowship regardless of what year of your undergraduate study you're in. So, it can be in any sort of clinical setting, outpatient, inpatient, any medical or surgical specialty. What aspect of psychiatry do you find most challenging? And then give an example of where you've had to innovate. And again, that doesn't need to be based in psychiatry. It doesn't even need to be clinically related. It may be something outside of your academic studies, so maybe from your own personal life. And then finally, describe a situation where you have failed to achieve a desired objective and what you learned. And again, that doesn't necessarily need to be within a clinical setting. So, it can be outside of your academic studies if you would prefer.

Very happy to answer any questions. Please do submit your questions using the Q&A function. Very best of luck with your applications, and do get in contact either with myself or the careers team at the college if you have any further queries. And what I'm going to do now is I'm going to stop sharing and hand over to one of our Agriberg fellows. So, I believe first up, we have Elsie, who is one of our current Agriberg fellows, who's going to talk a little bit about her application to the scheme and what, presumably, what she hopes to get out of it. Thank you very much, Elsie.

>> No problem. Uh, so hello, my name is Elsie. Uh, I'm currently a fifth-year medical student at Imperial College London. Um, so just a bit about why I applied for the Agri fellowship in the beginning. Um, in my earlier years in medical school, I was sort of looking into psychiatry as a specialty and just looking to see the things that I could do to help build my portfolio if it was a path that I wanted to go down. Um, and I just saw the fellowship and I really liked the fact that a big aspect of it was the mentoring because I thought that although it's quite easy to research things on your own, actually being guided by someone in the field with experience, I think is quite invaluable. So, that's one of the reasons, the one of the main things that drew me towards applying.

Um, just in terms of my application, I think the things that I focused on was for me just being genuine with answers and really saying, I know it seems simple, but really just explaining why I would want to be an Agri Bach fellow and what I would hope to gain from it. Because I think that it's okay to not necessarily be absolutely sold on the fact that you want to be a psychiatrist. Even if you have a bit of interest and think that this is something that could help you sort of make more decisions into whether you actually want to pursue a psychiatric career or not, I think is helpful when you're applying.

I think things that did help me once I answered the questions in terms of prepping for the interview was I did practice with other people and I tried to get other people's perspectives on how I answered questions. I also used personal experiences in terms of explaining my motivations as to why I would be interested in a career in psychiatry and just how I thought a mentor could help me in terms of just my what I've experienced so far in the fellowship. It's been very, very, very good. I've met a lot of different psychiatrists, and I've had the privilege of sort of having my view of psychiatry shift in terms of there's so much to psychiatry I didn't know. There's so much more than what is displayed on the RC Psych website in terms of it's a good place to start with the different specialties, but there's so many branches of psychiatry that you just generally would not know unless you actually spoke to someone with experience in that field. And I think that it has been invaluable in introducing me to different concepts and different areas of psychiatry I never thought existed before. Um, and my mentor has been very helpful in terms of just having someone just support you in achieving what you want to achieve. A big thing in what I want to get done within the mentorship is portfolio building. So, try to get in on more projects, and I think my mentor has been really good with bouncing back ideas. And something that's quite nice is that with my other fellows, because there's two others, we're sort of aiming to have undergo a project of some sort in things that we're passionate about. And that's quite nice, you know, to have like-minded individuals in that sense. And yeah, it's just, it's just been really a very good experience, and it's very exciting. Because when I first started, I wasn't 100% sure I wanted to do psychiatry. It was something that I was considering, but I was still open to many things. And even within psychiatry, the different subspecialties, I sort of had my focuses on child and adolescent, but through meeting so many different psychiatrists, now I'm just so, I want to do it all. And obviously, you can't do it all, but it's very, it's just very has been a very exciting experience for me.

Um, and in terms of what I hope to gain moving forward, I just hope to continue to be exposed to more areas of psychiatry that I haven't previously been exposed to. Um, I also hope to with my CPD fund attend conferences. I'm in fifth year right now, which is a little bit challenging to balance medical school and sort of outside of medical school, but hopefully, I'm hoping that when I get to sixth year, I can attend more conferences and use my CPD fund mainly towards an elective somewhere that is psychiatry-based as well. But yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say. I hope what I was able to communicate was very helpful, and hopefully, if you have any questions at the end, I will. I think I've seen some things in the chat, but I think there'll probably be some time to answer all the questions at the end. Thank you.

>> Thank you very much, Elsie, and appreciate you giving up your time as well to come and speak as part of the webinar today. Yes. So, we will have plenty of time for questions, and do please keep your questions coming in. You this is a great opportunity for you to ask any questions that you think might be relevant, and certainly, no question is a silly question. But we'll have plenty of time at the end to answer them.

So, it gives me great pleasure then to introduce our next speaker, who is Daniel. And Daniel was one of our first cohort of Agriberg fellows. So, a very privileged position, really, and he's going to speak about his own experience of being an Agriber fellow. So, Daniel, over to you.

>> Good evening, everyone. Um, yeah, I just want to start off by obviously giving a thanks to Elsie and Declan and the college for giving me an opportunity to share a bit with you guys. So, yeah, a bit about me. I'm Daniel. I'm 21, and I'm currently in my fourth year studying medicine at Bristol. And then just a bit of background. So, my parents are initially from Nigeria. So, they came over in 2000, and I was born here in the UK. So, I guess going a bit more into my journey with the fellowship. So, sort of why I applied. I'd say it was more, I'd say I had a genuine interest in psychiatry. So, before I went to uni, I was actually initially going to do psychology. But then after sort of doing a bit more research and looking into my different options, I thought, let me go down the medical route with the sort of interest of potentially doing psychiatry later on in life.

So, obviously, for a bit of context, I applied for the fellowship at the end of my first year. So, at this point, I'd had sort of very limited clinical experience. You know, I didn't really, I don't think I'd actually really been on wards at that point. So, with me applying to the fellowship, it was really just a way of just sort of seeing what's out there, you know, cuz I guess at that point, I was very much, although I was very much interested in psychiatry, there were a lot of different specialties that I was interested in. But when I sort of looked into the sort of details of the fellowship, I think one thing that I really liked about it was obviously the mentoring. You know, I think having someone who's sort of, you know, a professional in that field and sort of being able to, you know, talk to them, ask them questions, I thought that was something that would be really invaluable as well.

Um, and then I guess following on from that, going into the actual application process. To be honest, I don't remember too much about it, just because, yeah, it was over two years ago now, so quite a bit of time ago. But I guess from what I do remember, I think the key points I'd say is sort of firstly, as Declan mentioned earlier, I think really trying to link what you're writing to the college values. You know, so I remember for mine, I sort of went up on the college website and sort of looked down on the different things, you know, that sort of about courage, collaboration, all of that, and really tried to create answers that really sort of aligned with the college values and behaviors. But I think alongside that as well, what I found really important was making it personal. So, I remember I sort of talked about my own personal experiences, I guess with psychiatry itself. So, my dad actually works as a psychiatrist, so that was a big thing for me in terms of, you know, shaping my personal view of what a career in psychiatry would actually look like. I sort of went and talked about, you know, my own sort of personal medical experience as well, sort of times where I stayed in hospital and things, and how, I guess, you know, the doctors and the different members of the multidisciplinary team really made it a welcoming environment for me.

But yeah, I'd say in terms of the application, I don't remember too much about the interview, but I remember again, I think I believe it was Declan and Claire as well who did my interview, but I remember, you know, obviously they were lovely. It was quite laid back, and I'd say one thing that I do remember that I'd say was good is that try and show genuine interest, you know. So, I'd say myself, I'm quite an inquisitive person. I like to ask questions about things that I'm not sure about or that I don't understand. So, I'd say don't be afraid, you know, even though it's an interview, don't be afraid to, you know, ask them questions, get to know a bit more about what the fellowship actually involves.

And then I guess looking back, so after my two years of completing the fellowship, I'd guess in terms of sort of things that I got out of it or things that I'd learned from it, I'd say the biggest one is probably just building confidence. You know, I'd say I've never really done anything like the fellowship scheme, you know, and it meant that a lot of the sort of scenarios or a lot of the environments that I was in through the fellowship were things that were quite foreign to me. You know, a good example is even this webinar, you know, doing things like this is something that's very outside of my comfort zone. But I think through sort of, you know, obviously through the guidance and support of everyone and through sort of just over time, it really sort of built my confidence and made me become more comfortable with certain environments. So, for example, going to Congress, you know, sort of, I think the first year was up in Edinburgh. So, you know, it was all quite new to me, you know, sort of going up to Scotland, somewhere I've never been, and sort of a massive conference with psychiatrists all around the world, where myself, I was just sort of a medical student who'd just finished my second year. So, initially, it was all quite overwhelming. But I think just through, you know, talking to everyone, talking to different people, it really did help me, you know, to build my confidence. And as well as that, it really helped me to, I guess, get a better idea of what a career in psychiatry actually involves. You know, just sort of talking to the different people, getting an idea of what the work-life balance is. And something else that was really nice is I think I just sort of was able to get a real feel of the community, you know, of sort of RC Psych, you know, with things like Congress, you know, they have a lot of lovely meals, and seeing how like all the different psychiatrists still know each other from their training days. I think that was really nice, just the sort of community feel of all of it.

And then I'd say in terms of sort of how the fellowship has impacted me and how it would have an impact on my future plans, I'd say the main things that it's helped me with is sort of it's helped to give me a better idea of the route that I'd want to go into in psychiatry. So, I was able to sort of talk to a lot of different psychiatrists who specialize in different fields of psychiatry, for example, like things like forensic psychiatry, or like general adult, or CAMHS. So, I think based off that, you know, I've been able to sort of get a real good sense of different specialties. And something else which is actually amazing, which I work on with my mentor, Dr. Ify, is that we're actually in the process of hopefully arranging my elective, which would be in CAMHS, which I think is amazing, you know, that sort of through someone who I've met through the college, you know, being able to sort of organize this experience. And hopefully, after that sort of eight-week period, I'd have an even better idea, you know, of what I want life to look like when I specialize and hopefully go into psychiatry. So, I'd say those were both really amazing things that the fellowship was able to provide.

And I'd say also a final one is myself and the two other Agri Burke fellows from my cohort actually are in the process of conducting research, which again is something that I probably wouldn't have even thought of doing before the fellowship. But, you know, it's a really amazing opportunity. And I'm not sure if hopefully, if the slide should be shared soon, or if it can be shared, but essentially, it's just research looking at essentially how sort of, you know, black medical students view careers in psychiatry. And the data that we're getting is hopefully going to be stuff that can be used by the Royal College of Psychiatry in the wider sense to sort of, you know, try and see if there's any changes or barriers preventing black people from going into careers in psychiatry. So, I think even if anyone on this webinar is interested, the slide is here, and it's just a little QR code, just for a short questionnaire, sort of just to, yeah, essentially see what your views on psychiatry are.

But yeah, I'd say in terms of my talk, those are the main parts. So, um, yeah, and again, I'd be happy to answer any questions that anyone has at the end. So, yeah, thank you.

>> Thank you very much, Daniel. And it's a fantastic project that you three are working on. I think it's a really important piece of work, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the end result of that. There's a lot of work going into that project. So, do, do get involved with that project, anyone that's on the webinar this evening, if you're interested.

Okay. So, obviously, we can't have an Agriber fellowship scheme without mentors. And I'm really pleased to welcome our next speaker, Dr. Ify Amechi, who is Daniel's mentor. So, she'll be able to tell us all about how Daniel has fared over the last two years as an Agriber fellow, and perhaps share a little bit of insight into what as a mentor you might be able to contribute to the scheme and how as a mentor, you know, he or she can help you to achieve your goals. So, Ify, I will hand over to yourself. Thank you.

>> Thanks, Declan. Thanks, Declan. Um, and welcome to everybody. Um, it's lovely to be here. My name is Dr. Ephra Miki, and I'm a consultant child psychiatrist working in South Bristol CAMHS. Um, I'm an ex-Londoner, and Daniel was my lovely mentee, and I think, um, we were really new to it. So, we were the first cohort, really, and it was a new venture, and it was really exciting, and I was really kind of, um, I felt very privileged and flattered to be asked to be involved with this scheme. And hearing about the background about it and Dr. Agri Burke and how he was a kind of pioneer for black doctors, really. And I was kind of a beneficiary of his pioneership because I was applying to medical school at the time he was doing the research. So, I think I suppose it was after I applied that, um, things came to light. So, it was really wonderful to be asked.

But we were finding our feet with this, myself and Daniel. And what there were a few things that worked well with myself and Daniel. In a way, Declan had matched us up because I live and work in Bristol, and Daniel is studying in Bristol, and I think he lived very close to me. So, initially, we met up face-to-face at my house. I think that might have been a little bit overwhelming for Daniel. I think did you meet some of my children? I'm not sure if you met some of my children. So, that was really wonderful, actually, to meet with you face-to-face. And obviously, our social graces were really similar, I suppose, in a way that we are both of Nigerian heritage. So, it was easy to connect with Daniel. And actually, he was a bit of a unicorn in a way because I think all the other Agri Burke fellows are women, aren't they? Um, yeah, and you were very, uh, young in a way because they were all further on in their training. So, you were Daniel was quite unique, being young and male. So, that was excellent. So, I think that works well. It might not work. It might be difficult for a lot of mentors and mentees, but it worked for us that at least we could start out by meeting face-to-face and getting to know each other. And as I said, we got kind of a shared background, but we got to know each other. Daniel was telling me about his parents and his journey into medicine. Um, and I told him about mine because mine's quite a convoluted path. So, as well as being a mentor, being a bit of a role model because I didn't go straight into psychiatry. I did, after medical school, I did house jobs, then I did a PGCA, so I'm a secondary school teacher, and I did general practice and ped. So, kind of demonstrating that it might not be a straight path to psychiatry. I think it's a bit straighter now, but definitely in the days that I started my training, a lot of people weaved their way to psychiatry, picking up experience along the way. So, sharing that kind of knowledge with Dan, with Daniel, was really great.

And also for me, it was kind of a two-way thing. Because when I started at medical school over three decades ago, there were very few black medical students. So, it was really great to be able to mentor a current cohort of medical students and to know from Daniel that things have changed a little bit in medical school. So, it was two-way, that he learned from me, and I was learning from him and the other Agri Burke fellows as well, about how things are slowly changing. And also Lade Smith. So, a great thing about this fellowship, which I think worked really well, was all of us being able to meet with Lade Smith, who is the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, again, who shares social graces, same kind of background as all of us. So, that again was what went well. And as Declan mentioned at the beginning and at the end of the fellowship, there were meals, weren't there, Daniel, that we could that we all met up. Dr. Angry Burke was due to join on, but he was too poorly, but it was just nice to be all together and share that space. And Daniel and I, so I think after the initial face-to-face meeting, we met online because, as Declan had mentioned, I think Daniel, you do sports, and your timetable got busier and busier, I think, so it made it easier to meet online. But I think having met face-to-face to start off with for me was really helpful. And also meeting the other mentees, and then meeting the other mentors. I had that worked well for me. I met as a mentor group, we met, and to share what the other mentors were doing, what the other possibilities were, because some of the mentors were more research-orientated. I see myself as kind of more like a jobbing CAMHS clinician. Um, and I, as I say, was able to share my journey into medicine. And I'm very CAMHS-focused in a way, and was able to share that with Daniel. But I think Daniel was quite CAMHS-focused, and that's what led to Daniel's interest in doing an elective. And I know I've snuffled him up and said, yes, yes, even though there are other really important people that are suggesting that he might want to do something else with his elective. But for me, in encouraging Daniel's interest in CAMHS has been really enjoyable, and seeing that blossom and seeing his confidence blossom as well. I'm really impressed to see that he's here tonight because, believe it or not, Daniel is quite shy. He's brilliant, but he's here. And they say, challenging yourself, and also speaking to Daniel about all of you, Agri Burke fellows, and potential Agri Burke fellows, you are real role models for black young people who are in school at the moment, thinking about a potential career in medicine, whether they think they're able to do it or not. So, just part of what I've said to Daniel is that in the elective, hopefully, he'll be able to, we've got a branch of CAMHS that goes into schools, that he'll be able to go into schools and just by his presence being there, being a black medical student, he will be a kind of role model for other young black men and women who might want to follow a path of medicine and feel that it might not be possible for them. So, and Daniel is living proof that actually, you can. So, that's really, really quite helpful.

Um, and what Daniel was very good at doing is answering my emails. You know, what did you do that really helped the process? And he was really always able to be flexible about meetings and meeting times. So, and he was very enthusiastic, and he was good at linking up with the other two fellows. As you see, they've got a research project that they're doing, and that they've been supported by other people in the Agriberg Fellowship to do. And what worked with Daniel is that I think he kind of knew what he wanted to get from the fellowship. He'd always had an interest in CAMHS, even though his dad is an adult psychiatrist. That's what really helped in a way because that's my raison d'être. That's what I know about. I do know about the other specialties, but I've been working as a CAMHS psychiatrist for a long, long time. So, it was helpful that we were matched up quite well, and it's really helpful that he wants to do an elective, so I can support him through that.

What, what I also enjoyed was helping Daniel spend his money towards the end. I said, Daniel, you know, spend it. And just helping him with ideas about what, how he might spend that. I think thinking about what is possible, you know, I've got a question here. I've been asked, what is possible, what isn't possible? I think to my mind, a mentor will try and help you achieve whatever. I don't think that anything is impossible. Everything can be thought of and surmountable. So, you know, everything is is is possible. You know, whatever you think you want to do, your mentor will be able to give you some help or advice about how to go about it. So, and we're here to support you and share our journeys with you about how we got on in medicine and medical school and the pitfalls and about how we got to where we are, and the difficulties in training, and just encouraging you really as black excellent medical students to continue with your black excellence, really, and to share it, and to be positive role models going forward. And just particularly about psychiatry, for me, psychiatry has been, I've done lots of, as I say, I've weaved my way to this point in my career, and it is, it is the thing that I enjoy most, really, and feel that it's incredibly rewarding. As a CAMHS psychiatrist, it is a very hard job, but it's incredibly rewarding, and I wouldn't be doing anything else. And this Agriberg Fellowship is a really great thing that's just for black medical students. There isn't very much out there just for black medical students. So, please do apply and spread the word. There are lots more black medical students up and down the universities in the UK than there were when I started over three decades ago. My daughter's one of them, but she doesn't want to do psychiatry anyway. So, it's been a real pleasure to be here to talk to you about my experience of being a mentor and working with the wonderful Daniel and the Agribert scheme. I'd encourage you all to apply and continue to be positive role models, whether you get the fellowship or not.

>> Lovely. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ify. Thank you for those words of encouragement and words of inspiration. I think there is something about being a role model, isn't there, as a consultant psychiatrist. And there's nothing more pleasurable, I think, than seeing medical students with that kind of enthusiasm and interest and actually thinking, good goodness me, that was me 20 years ago. But it's great to be able to provide that kind of role modeling for medical students. We know it's really important in terms of shaping career aspirations.

Right. Okay. So, we've got plenty of time for questions. We've got about 50 minutes left, so please do keep your questions coming in. And I can see we've got some questions already, so I'm going to kick off. So, we've got a question here about whether it's okay to apply for the Psychstar scheme and the Agriber Fellowship. So, the answer to this is, it is okay to apply for them both. Um, unfortunately, what you can't do is you can't occupy a Psychstar bursary and an Agriber Burke Fellowship bursary as well. So, you would have to make a choice between the two.

of them in terms of which you would prefer to be involved with. Um, but you can certainly apply, uh, for both, uh, of the schemes. And, and certainly, um, you can, for example, have applied for the SCAR scheme previously, not been successful, and apply for the Agriber fellowship on this occasion.

Okay. Um, so next question is in relation to research opportunities. So, does this fellowship provide opportunities to participate in research? Um, absolutely does. And I think this is, this is one of the key reasons why, um, it's really important when we appoint the Agriate fellows that we have an idea about what, what your areas of interest are. So, whether that's sort of academic psychiatry, you may have a specific desire to develop your, uh, interest in academic psychiatry or a particular area of psychiatry and research into that. Or >> Hi Declan, sorry, we've lost your sound. >> for that. I didn't realize the sound gone. Um, the question was about opportunities to participate in research. Um, so this is absolutely possible, uh, for Agriate fellows. So, um, the key thing is really making us aware of what areas of interest that you have. So, if it's a specific area of psychiatry that you want to do research in, if we know that from the start, then we can use that information to try to identify a mentor that's going to be suited to your area of interest. Yeah. So that's one of the things that we specifically, um, look at. So, um, you know, certainly, I know for some people that apply to the scheme, they may be keen to develop their interest in academic psychiatry and have no experience of that hitherto. So, that is certainly something we can look at facilitating, uh, as part of the, um, Agriate fellowship scheme. And as you heard Daniel, uh, speak about, um, before, uh, obviously our first cohort of Agriate fellows, they've actually, um, all worked together, the three of them, to, uh, look at launching their own, uh, research project looking at attitudes in black medical students to a career in psychiatry. So, there's nothing stopping you working with your Agriber fellow peers to, to, um, get engaged in, uh, doing a research project, you know, and seeing that through from start to finish and being appropriately supervised and provided with senior guidance from your mentors, uh, and myself and the college as well.

Um, are you allowed to apply if you were unsuccessful before? Absolutely, and I would, I would really encourage you to do so. Um, uh, you know, I always think if you, if at first you don't succeed, try trying again until you're successful. Um, it's, it's very competitive. The Agriber fellowship scheme has, uh, attracted a lot of interest, uh, from the two cohorts that we've launched so far. So, it is a competitive scheme, um, and it, and it is really tough to, to even get interviewed. So, um, you know, I remember speaking to Lad, the president of the college, on the day that we did the interviews, and we were both absolutely bowled over by the standard of all eight or nine candidates that we interviewed. It was really difficult trying to pick just three. So, it is a very competitive process. So, um, don't lose heart if you're unsuccessful applying the first time. Do apply again. Um, you know, and obviously, you've got that prior experience of having gone through the process. We've lost you again, and then every time I interrupt, you come back. >> Okay. Um, I'm not sure when you lost me, Cla. So, um, just to say, if you were unsuccessful previously, you are able to apply this time. Uh, and I would encourage you to do so. Uh, you know, do, do seek advice from, uh, people that can support you with your application. Uh, hopefully, it's still okay.

Um, so what kind of things have past fellows spent their money on? Um, I think it's fair to say, well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to bring in our ages. Daniel, what did you spend your money on? >> Yeah. So, I think with me, since I think what my other fellows mainly used it on was the electives, but obviously, I think since I joined a bit younger, I, um, didn't have the opportunity. So, I think I spent the biggest chunk of my CPD fund on getting a new laptop, just because, um, I think where I was at in uni, I actually didn't have a laptop prior. So, I sort of, after sort of discussing with, uh, the college, making sure it was all okay, I think we decided that that would be the best going forward because, you know, it's still the one that I'm using and it's really sort of helped me along my medical school journey. But I think other bits I used it was for sort of some online courses. Um, I use it for some online subscriptions as well, just to help me with my sort of medicine. So, like PassMed and Anki, things like that. >> Yeah. And Elsie, I know it's very early on. I don't know whether you've spent any of your money yet or you, you're saving your money. Have you spent any of it? >> No, I have not spent any of my money yet. I do want to spend majority of my money on my elective, um, because it can be quite expensive, but, um, I'm interested in attending a few conferences as well. Um, yeah. >> Absolutely. And I think that's one of the great things, isn't it, about the CPD fund is, um, you can spend it on several different things, and it's a great opportunity to go to conferences and courses that there's no way you'd be able to afford to go to without that CPD fund. Um, so, uh, you know, your mentor is there to support and guide you in terms of how you spend your CPD fund as well. So, if you're not sure, you know, consult with your mentor, or or feel free to ask myself or, um, Claire or Katrina at the college. We can always guide you as well. Um, but essentially, so long as it's something psychiatry related, and things like psychiatry textbooks are very expensive, trust me. Um, so it's a great opportunity to get all your textbooks in preparation for foundation training and core training in psychiatry.

Um, so, uh, there's another question here, and I guess Daniel, I'll come back to you if that's okay, because someone's asking whether they're at a disadvantage applying for the Agriber fellowship if they're still in the preclinical years of medicine, and you were obviously only year two when you applied. Well, I mean, I guess technically year one. >> Year one. >> Yeah. Um, I'd say no. I'd say you're definitely not at a disadvantage. I'd say, um, you, in terms of the application process, I think it's again, it still just comes to things that, sort of, we mentioned before. So, things like, you know, making it personal to yourself and I guess showing a genuine, desired interest. Because I'd say with me, something that actually might have been an advantage, I think since I was so fresh, I didn't really know much about anything, sort of, I had a lot of genuine interest and enthusiasm about psychiatry. And I think obviously, you know, when they weigh it all up, um, they look at everything, sort of, balanced. So, I'd say there's, I wouldn't say you're at a disadvantage for being preclinical. Definitely not. So, yeah. >> And I would absolutely emphasize that, Daniel, to be honest, because obviously, as I mentioned in, in my presentation, your, your answer to the questions don't have to be based on psychiatric patients that you've encountered. Um, you know, you can talk about non-clinical encounters as well as your answers to some of the questions. So, um, really, what we're looking for is, um, you know, someone that's going to be a good ambassador for the scheme, an ambassador for psychiatry, but have an enthusiasm to really get as much out the scheme as possible. That's what we really want.

Um, okay. There's a question here about what would you say tips the scale during each of the two stages of the selection process when you're close between candidates? Um, that's a very difficult question. Um, so, I mean, we have scoring criteria, and we have, um, more than one person, uh, who scores all the applicants, and one of the things that we do is we anonymize the applications as well. So, when I'm looking at the answers to, uh, all the questions from an applicant, I have no idea which medical school, uh, they're from. Um, so we can't be biased in any way. Um, so we, we, we try and make the process as fair as possible, and we will have at least two or three, possibly even three scorers for each applicant as well. So, we can look to see that there's kind of correlation there. Um, and sometimes it's small margins. Uh, and, you know, it goes back to what I was saying about the scheme being very competitive. Um, and when it comes to the interviews, really, it's how you perform on the day. Um, and I know, you know, interviews can be very scary, particularly as a medical student. You know, I, I mean, I think Daniel and, um, your colleagues, I think considering that one of your interviews was the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, I think you did fantastically well to maintain your cool and, and, you know, um, really not get conquered by nerves. So, I think it is about interview performance as well on the day. Um, but I suppose it's just kind of conveying that enthusiasm and that interest, um, and, and really, you know, allowing that to shine through, uh, when it comes to the interviews, probably just tips the scale. Um, but it is very, very competitive, and the standard is very high. Um, so, you know, it is fine margins, and, and certainly if you're not successful, do, do apply again. Absolutely do apply again.

Um, so we've got another question about how important is to have previous experience in psychiatry, extracurriculars, participation, societies, and conferences for the application. Um, I don't think this is a deal breaker by any stretch. I think it always helps, but probably more in terms of helping you to, um, identify perhaps some of the areas of psychiatry that you're interested in, or what you may be interested in, uh, finding out, um, you know, more, more about specific areas of psychiatry, or helping you to develop the, the kind of confidence to organize events and develop some leadership skills as well. So, I think, you know, there are lots of benefits to getting involved with your local psychiatry society, but certainly if it's not something that you're involved in at the moment, uh, perhaps it's something you might think you might want to get involved in. Who knows, you might become an Agriber fellow and then decide, actually, I now really want to get involved with my local student psychiatry society. Uh, I think that that can, um, that that can certainly be, uh, you know, one way forward. Uh, I don't think it's something that, um, you know, you need to worry about if you're not involved in your psychiatry society at this point in time, particularly if you're an early years medical student as well, um, you might not, you know, have had, you might not have even thought about getting involved in your psychiatry, uh, student society, um, and I think, you know, in terms of attending conferences, well, you may not have been able to do that because of the cost or because of the opportunity. Um, you know, that's one of the advantages of the Agriber fellowship to give you those opportunities to attend those conferences and courses and to provide the financial means, uh, that allow you to to do that. Um, and of course, have access to that mentoring that will allow you to sort of, um, guide some of the decisions you make, either about your career in psychiatry or, or, you know, how you might develop your interest. So, you know, I think, you know, is a really good example of that with with his interest in CAMs and being matched with a CAMs mentor who's, you know, been able to help him, uh, immeasurably develop that interest and open up, uh, new opportunities and, um, you know, clinical experiences that he wouldn't have got through through not being involved with the scheme.

Okay. So, we, we have got two or three minutes. Um, I will say as well, one thing I didn't actually, uh, mention in the, uh, presentation was that your, your two years with the scheme and your two years with your mentor doesn't have to stop at the end of two years. So, um, it's really dependent on you as the mentee and your mentor. There's nothing to stop you continuing to have that sort of mentee-mentor relationship, albeit informally and not within the confines of the scheme. Certainly, uh, that's something we would encourage you to do. Um, you know, I think, um, uh, Daniel, I think you mentioned yourself that coming to the college, it was like, kind of, um, you know, you were kind of impressed by the way that people knew each other from training and they were now consultants. And I always think, you know, once you sort of become involved with the College of Psychiatrists, it's like joining a big family, um, and, and we want to welcome you guys as medical students and, and watch you grow and nurture and, and see you progress through your training and become consultant colleagues, you know, that, that, that gives us great pleasure, uh, as older consultants, should we.

Okay. Um, we've got a couple more minutes. Um, so if there are any other questions, please do, um, put them in the, um, uh, Q&A box. Yeah. So, we had about 45 applicants for the last two cohorts. So, it is popular for three, uh, Agriber fellows. So, it just goes to show, um, you know, how well you've done if you're awarded one of the Agriber fellowship bursaries. So, um, you know, it's a fantastic effort from, from Daniel and Elsie to, to kind of, um, you know, achieve the Agriber Fellowship, and, um, you know, it's a great thing in terms of your CV and for your career as well. Um, okay, so I'm very conscious we're 1 minute to seven. So, just to remind you about the application window, which does open tomorrow at midday, and that will stay open then until the, uh, 27th of April at midday. Um, so you've got plenty of time to submit your application. Um, and, you know, do seek advice, uh, from people around you, whether that's consultants, SAS psychiatrists, trainees, etc. Um, you know, you've got plenty of time to, to kind of draft some answers, get some feedback. Uh, and I really look, I'm really looking forward to reading your applications, and I wish you all the very best of luck. I want to say a huge thank you to Elsie and Daniel for coming and speaking, uh, on a webinar. It's, um, it's not an easy thing to do, guys, especially as a medical student. So, well done to both of you. I'm sure it'll be the first of many. I want to say a huge thank you as well to, um, Ify for her work as a mentor and being so enthusiastic about the scheme right from the word go. Um, you know, from the first time I met her, you know, it was clear that she was really enthusiastic about being involved with the scheme and really keen to help Daniel as a mentor. So, um, I'm sure we may call on her services at some point, uh, for future Agriber fellows. Um, I just want to say a huge thank you to you all for attending this evening, and, and to Claire and Katrina behind the scenes, for all the admin work, and, um, thank you very much for joining us. Best of luck with your applications, uh, and good evening.