Monique Cleary

Monique Cleary: Podiatry student

Monique, a second year podiatry student, applied for the Student Leadership programme, known as the #150Leaders, and explains this was a way to, “help develop my skills in leadership and learn ways to bring leaderships skills into action.”  

The programme includes a two-day residential event full of workshops, lectures, and seminars, followed by monthly online webinars and a network for students to interact and learn from one another.

Monique reports:

“The residential event was fantastic as I got the opportunity to connect with inspiring future health care professionals across the four nations at different universities, who are also deeply passionate about their career paths and have big ideas about how they think health services could be run in the future.” 

“The monthly webinars have also been inspirational, with key guest speakers who are experts in their field, which I am able to catch up on around my studies. This programme has consciously made me more accountable to who I want to be when I enter the workplace and I am gaining invaluable tools to make me a better candidate for all roles and avenues I pursue in the future.’ 

Key highlights for Monique

• Residential aspect to the programme enabled networking and relationship building with other students 
• Seminars give great opportunity to operate in multi-disciplinary style workshops
• Dragons Den-style pitches support presentation skills development
• Opportunity to be coached by professionals with your field – Monique reports, “My coach showed me how my ideas can be delivered with the right support, guidance and perseverance”
• Contacts and connection with industry leaders, “who have shown how to lead in everyday working life”
• Confidence gained and feedback received in real time 
• Networks open wider opportunities – whilst partaking on this programme, Monique has gained a space on the Clinton Global Initiative University after discussing this opportunity with a fellow student, alongside being invited by Health Education England to attend their stakeholder event 
• Skills development in creating, planning and delivery of a project proposal, which required presenting this idea to the Clinical Senate of the Royal College of Podiatry and receiving approval.

Next steps

Monique’s next goal is to explore how she can take her project further with support from podiatry industry leaders, and finally comments, “Now when I enter my working life as a podiatrist, I know I can action change and make a difference.”  Find out more about Monique's project proposal