In my extra-curricular activities during my med school time I have developed a passion for Training & Development. I means a lot to me as I could clearly see how it can make a difference, especially when working with small groups.

At Charité - Univeritätsmedizin Berlin, I joined the student-led organizing committee for the 12th European Students Conference (see current and conserved website). My tasks were organizing special events such as a panel discussion with the former German president Richard von Weizsäcker and a high-yielding fundraising campaign. Through this job, I learned many unique skills, but also how hard (but rewarding) it is to work in a high-performing team. A movie that catches the spirit of the project well has been produced by one of the subsequent organizing committees:

We later on founded and alumni club and a steering committee. The later helps the organizing committee (sometimes with external training & development or facilitation) in charge to developed their goals & objectives, build their team, and track their progress (see these diagrams and the ESC Wikipedia entry for further details).

I went on to become a long-standing member in the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA). Here I devoted my time & energy to training and development, namely a project aimed to systematically introduce facilitation into the organization ("Implementation of 'Interaction Method'"), facilitation of meetings, training old and new trainers workshops, and introducing a project proposal review committee.

At Charité - Univeritätsmedizin Berlin, I later on taught a course on "Breaking Bad News" (German course description and more on Breaking Bad News). Basically, Breaking bad news is not something that most medical students are eager to try. Dilbert's advisor Dogbert says: "Never break bad news...it will only get you in trouble." And stories abound about how unskilled physicians blundered their way through an important conversation, sometimes resulting in serious harm to the patient. (taken from a bioethics website of the University of Washington School of Medicine).