Otago University Medical Student's Association - 2023 ELM Executive
Our people - students working for students
Divyashri Thakkar
President
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
president@oumsa.org
Kia ora everyone and welcome to OUMSA!
I’m Divyashri (Div) and I am super excited and humbled to be leading this year’s fabulous executive team. Our exceptional team of officers and reps work hard to provide the best possible experience for you all at Otago Medical School – whether that be education, welfare, social, sports, or conferences – OUMSA does it all. My role as president sees me facilitating the amazing work this team puts in and supporting them as we work to serve you well. Alongside this role I love working on my honors for Anthropology, binging any and every TV show (if you’re a Fleabag fan we are already friends), and playing switch!
If you see me around please stop to say hello – I’m always happy to serve and help in any way I can:))
Excited to catch you all around campus soon!
Senuka Onel
Vice-President – Administrative
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
vpa@oumsa.org
Kia ora everyone!
My name is Senuka and I’m humbled to be your Vice President Administrative for 2023!
I’m super excited to be part of this all star team of like-minded medics 🤩! My role sees me managing OUMSA’s internal affairs alongside our VPE Jono, managing our public pages on facebook, youtube and other platforms, as well as running and creating the OUMSA elections. I’ll also be liaising with NZMSA to get our ELM students better access to the conference they host!
In my spare time you can find me exploring and getting cool drone shots of the beauty that is the South Island or casually hitting unipol when my lectures are on 🤫.
Come hit me up for a yarn if you see me around!
This is your student association – we are here to make your ELM years the best they can be.
Jono Sangkhamyong
Vice President – External
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
vpe@oumsa.org
Kia Ora!
I’m Jonathan and I have been given the privilege to be your Vice-President External for 2023.
My role involves managing internal OUMSA affairs, mentoring programmes, and organizing the UNITY/Ascend Professional development programmes.
Unity is a series of seminars which aim to introduce the general concepts of cultural competence and safety to our students and professors.Part of my role also includes maintaining a positive relationship with the various Med Clubs, Med Revue and NZMSA.
I’d say my life is far from oar-dinary considering that I am a rower at Otago Uni. Besides rowing, In my spare time you’ll see me hitting bogeys at the Otago golf course, shooting hoops and spending a bulk of my time on the squat rack. I also really enjoy Music and Drama and I am excited to be back at Med Revue for a 2nd year!
Few words of advice for 2nd year “just send it”. Seriously enjoy your 2nd year, try new things and take it chill. Now is the time to learn and make mistakes.
If you see me around, hit me up for a yarn!
Hank Lin
Treasurer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
treasurer@oumsa.org
Kia Ora!
I’m Hank and I am the treasurer for the 2023 OUMSA exec team! Being a treasurer means that I’ll be planning out budgets for events throughout the year, organizing all the income and expanses. I’ll also be the person to contact if you need a refund from OUMSA.
While I’m not busy with the treasurer work, I will be organizing events for the Otago Uni Taiwanese student association!! Feel free to check it out :))
Looking forward to seeing y’all soon!
Amy Choi
Education Officer – Internal
educationinternal@oumsa.org
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
Kia ora, I’m Amy and I am your Education Officer Internal for 2023! I am excited to be organising the Study Buddy tutorials throughout the year. These awesome tutorials are run by students for students and are great to revise module content and make sure you’re on the right track. (Head to the OUMSA shop to buy a subscription now!) My other responsibilities are to attend fortnightly education meetings to give feedback to tutors, providing support to students who are also parents, and for those sitting special exams. In my spare time, I love to make a good meal and enjoy the sun when it’s out!
Hayley Bennett
Education Officer – External
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
education@oumsa.org
Kia Ora everyone 🙂 I’m Hayley and really looking forward to representing you all as the education officer external for 2023. My role is to chair the education meetings with Amy and to be your voice to the lecturers so we can feedback about the course and make the learning experience the best it can be! Email me at education@oumsa.org or if you see me in person feel free to let me know how things are going for you.
I’m a trained radiation therapist and mum to two cute dogs named Mayo and Cole and a cat named George.
Dilan Magan
Welfare Officer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
welfare@oumsa.org
Kia Ora Everyone,
I’m Dilan and I have the privilege of being your 2023 OUMSA Welfare Officer!!!
In my role you’ll see me organising Welfare Week, Welfare teams at events, making those lectures go just a bit faster with a few fruit bursts (a crowd favourite) or facilitating Welfare Hours.
More importantly though my role involves listening to you and being that friendly face you can always come and chat to. I’m here to support you and make sure you have the most enjoyable, stress free time you possibly can.
I use my spare time to head outside and shoot some photos. I also love the outdoors and spend a considerable amount of time running, biking, playing hockey or tramping.
If you ever need me feel free to stop me and chat or flick me a message because I’m here to offer support and guidance.
I’m so excited to meet you all :))
Brendan Fleming
Social Officer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
social@oumsa.org
Kia ora koutou med whānau 🙂
My name is Brendan and I’m your ELM social officer for 2023! I’ll be organising all of our social events throughout the year from wine & cheese to our (greatly anticipated) med ball. My greatest traits include godly limbo skills and having the worst dance moves in the clubs. Part of making sure that ELM events are as fun as possible is listening to feedback from you guys, so don’t hesitate to message me if you’ve got anything to say!
Jack Kininmonth
Sports Officer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
sports@oumsa.org
Kia ora everyone,
I’m lucky enough to be your OUMSA sports officer for 2023. This means I’m responsible for providing you guys with opportunities to get moving and have fun playing sports with your mates. Throughout the year we will have events like the annual beer pong tournament, med ski trip, tramps and interfaculty sports. There are also many social sports on offer that play in a weekly competition (which I strongly encourage you to get involved in), and yes, the run club will be returning.
In my free time I play a lot of sport (shock), with volleyball and basketball being my main two down at uni. I also really enjoy music and am excited to be running it back with the med band again this year.
The goal is to enable as many ELM students as possible to get active and involved, so if you have any ideas or questions throughout the year don’t hesitate to contact me. Looking forward to seeing y’all out there.
Leilani Jones
Community Outreach Officer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
communityoutreach@oumsa.org
Kia ora everyone!
I’m Leilani or Lani and I am excited to be your Community Outreach Officer. I am looking forward to seeing all of you around, sharing some laughs and creating a whānau. I am responsible for organizing our charity events for the year including Relay for Life, Pink Friday, Daffodil Day etc. We also have several community involvement events such as tree planting days, blood donations and Teddy Bear Hospital which introduces kindergartens to the medical world in a fun way. If you’ve got any awesome ideas you want to talk about or events you would like to be involved I’d love to hear from you
Jun Chong
Communications/Sponsorship Officer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
sponsorship@oumsa.org
Kia Ora everyone!
I’m Jun (June), your Communications Officer for 2023. I was born and raised in Malaysia and have been in Dunners for the past 3 years. My role involves getting us awesome merch, membership benefits and sponsorships. If there’s any merch ideas you would like to see, don’t hesitate to let me know! I’ll also be the one posting on the oumsa_gram so be sure to give us a follow and stay updated with all the exciting events to come! I look forward to meeting all of you and feel free to hit me up if you have any questions at all xx
Eushin Kang
ECCO Convenor
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
ecco@oumsa.org
Kia Ora!
I’m Eushin and I am so so excited to be your ECCO convenor. ECCO (ELM Clinical Conference Otago) is an annual medical student conference involving highly passionate speakers, cutting edge hands-on workshops, and a dazzling gala night to get to know your peers better. When I’m not hustling and bustling with the amazing ECCO committee, I’ll be preoccupied watching football, going running or binging on the latest K dramas. Feel free to message me about anything and everything :))
Jeremy Ishi
Website/Store Administrator
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
webmaster@oumsa.org
Kia ora,
I’m Jeremy the website person for 2023. I will be helping out will putting up products on the website and sorting out the online orders.
Feel free to contact me if you need help or have feedback, good or bad webmaster@oumsa.org
Parnia Naeimasa
Gap Year Rep
gapyear@oumsa.org
Kia ora lovely person reading this <3
I’m Parnia (or Nia) and I am the OUMSA Gap Year Officer for 2022-2023
I am here to support my wonderful gap year student whānau (inclusive of people doing BMedSci hons , BA or taking a year out of med for other reasons)
I create social or info events as well as serve as the contact person for all things Gap Year related between students and the medical school
I am always happy to listen to you if you have any questions or concerns and will do my absolute best to help out if I can
Please feel welcome to email me at : gapyear@oumsa.org and I will get back to you
Thank you for reading this – hugs <3
Much Aroha and many warm wishes ,
Nia (Parnia)
She/They pronouns
Lilian Campbell-Tie
3rd Year Rep
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
3rdyear@oumsa.org
Kia ora whānau!
I’m Lili and I have the absolute privilege of being your 3rd year rep for 2023. This year I’ll be our voice for class division and will organise the 3rd year class photo as well as demigrad at the end of the year (plus a few other niggly bits). Our goal at OUMSA is to advocate for what’s in the best interest of all second and third years so please don’t hesitate to contact us, we are here to serve you! In my spare time catch me at the bog, binging some netflix show or absolutely tearing up the dance floor at wine and cheese (please don’t ask to battle me, I’ll lose). Hope to see you all around this year 🙂
Brian Wong
NZMSA General Rep
Early Learning in Medicine – 2nd Year
nzmsa_rep@oumsa.org
My name is Brian and I am super excited and humbled to be elected to your NZMSA General Rep 2023! In this role, I liaise between both NZMSA and OUMSA executives and get to work with both awesome teams. NZMSA is the body advocating for medical students at the national level. They work directly with Te Whatu Ora, Medical Council of New Zealand and many other groups to present medical students and our issues. I act as a voice for all of you at the NZMSA table and pass on your concerns or ideas to them. The goal is to get many ELM and gap year students involved and to help us shape the associations that we all are proud to be part of. Please do not hesitate to email me at nzmsa_rep@oumsa.org or come and have a chat with me if you have any question, suggestion or idea!
Piri Tohu
Te Ao Māori
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
@oumsa.org
Ko Motatau te Maunga
Ko Hikurangi te Awa
Ko Tau Henare te Marae
Ko Ngāti Hine te Iwi
Te Orewai te Hapū
Ko Piri ahau.Kia ora e koutou.
My name is Piri and my role is as your Hauora Māori Officer. I come from the small rural community of Pipiwai. My people are Te Orewai, Te Ihutai and Te Kau i Mua. I have a passion for advocating equitable opportunities for all – especially Māori. My goal is to be a common face – a tangata kanohi kitea. Someone who is present, someone who is approachable, someone who most people can become familiar with, and who they and you can spin a yarn to. In the words of my tupuna karani māmā (maternal great-grand mother): “peka mai te katoa” (come in, all are welcome). It is by that same collaborative and hospitable spirit that I too say “peka mai te katoa”. My duty is to promote the idea of cultural appreciation and to encourage the thought that we are all rowing in the same waka towards a common goal. That goal being to provide health services to all of society.
James Ropati
Pacific (PIHPSA) Rep
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
@oumsa.org
Malo le soifua, fakaalofa lahi atu and warm Pacific greetings!
I’m James and it’s an absolute privilege to be your OUMSA Pacific Representative for 2022! I am Samoan, Niuean, Malaysian, born and raised in Wellington. My role mainly involves educating the cohorts and staff of Pacific culture and values, maintaining the relationship and communication between Pacific Islands Health Professional Student’s Association (PIHPSA) and OUMSA! Myself and a few others advocate on behalf of Pasifika medical students, best represent our values in board meetings, provide fun events and much much more! If you have any questions or want to have a talanoa about anything regarding medicine or Pacific or neither, don’t hesitate to let me know! I’m always keen for a chat! Fa’afetai tele lava ma manuia le malaga i lau aoga!
