Media & Press

Eye of the Storm

1 January, 2015

Jeff (Chi-Hung) Chen

When reflecting upon this past fall semester, I cannot help but feel astounded at how much really happened in what felt like a brief moment in time. During the first two weeks, I was scrambling to finish up my UBC medical school application along with managing the responsibilities of planning and running member recruitment for the professional medical fraternity I was a part of. With a full course load in addition to this, I quickly found myself behind the eight ball. To be honest, it felt like I was playing catch-up until maybe mid-November. Once things had quieted down slightly by the middle of October, however, I found that I could finally enjoy and truly take in what I was learning in my 300 level courses. One of those courses was a human physiology course that focused primarily on the cardiovascular system. As this was the field of study that had nurtured my interest in research and had been the focus of my past research work, I can say I thoroughly enjoyed the course. Another course that stood out was my functional anatomy course. Here, aside from learning hundreds of human muscles (their origins, insertions, innervations, and functions) and various organ systems, I had the opportunity to dissect a rabbit over the semester to visualize everything. I decided to name our group’s rabbit Edger (I figured the second E would make him unique). Ironically enough, once the last week of class came around and we dissected the reproductive system, we found out that Edger was female. Go figure. The course itself was the most work-intensive that I have taken to this point, but it has also been the most rewarding course. For an aspiring physician, I loved learning all about the human body and exactly what muscles made it move every which way. At around this time in October, I also started spending a greater portion of my time volunteering with the grade 2/3 class at the local elementary school. One of the coolest things I had the opportunity to do was to lead story-time. Although public speaking has never been one of my favorite things to do, this was completely different. As I sat on the carpet amidst eager eyes, the story flowed effortlessly. From that moment on, I truly felt like a member of the class, not just a volunteer peering in from the outside. Case in point, one day, a couple of girls decided to marry me to Taylor Swift. They drew up her contact information, wedding certificates and orchestrated a whole ceremony with several others acting as witnesses! Granted, Taylor stood me up, but what can you do? Near the end of the semester, I saw the rapidly developing Schulich Leader Network first-hand, as the six SFU Schulich Leaders met up for dinner. It was an absolute blast to meet Raaj and Nancy, and especially nice to spend time with five brilliant individuals with whom I shared a connection via the Schulich Leader Scholarship.