2

Motivation Letter

Dear IFMSA members, Dear SCOPE family

It is with the greatest pride and pleasure that I hereby present my candidature for the

position of SCOPE Director, for the term 2015-2016.

My name is Omar Cherkaoui, I am 24 years old and I am currently a 7th year medical

student at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat, Morocco.

As you may know, I am currently finishing my third term as IFMSA Official (Including

interim New Technologies Support Division Director in 2012-2013) but still, my devotion,

motivation, excitement and hard work are still as high as when I first joined IFMSA. My

stress level while submitting this candidature is also quite high…

My journey with IFMSA started 4 years ago, along with some other colleagues from

Morocco, when we decided to found a Local Committee (LC) in Rabat and then IFMSA-

Morocco, and to attend the August Meeting 2012 to present the candidate membership

of our NMO in IFMSA.

I have a particular memory of the August Meeting 2012, as I could remember all my

excitement back then to start SCOPE in Morocco. I remember the feeling I had when

presenting our exchange program in the SCOPE Sessions and negotiating with other

NEOs to sign our first contracts. Since that day, I excitedly attended all the SCOPE

Sessions in IFMSA General Assemblies. 6 GAs in total.

Now, I feel like I would be the appropriate person to serve you as SCOPE Director for one

more year, as I have had the necessary experience in all imaginable steps in SCOPE on a

local/national side (From how the SCOPE exchange program should be implemented in an

NMO/LC to how to get the recognition of the university, passing through the focus on the

Academic Quality and the necessity of a Pre-Departure Training), as well as on an

international side (Attending all kind of international events – GAs, RMs, TNT, TOT, PRETs,

NGAs of other NMOs -, facilitating sessions, elected best NEO twice, member of the SCOPE

International Team, IFMSA Official and finally SCOPE Director).

3

The reason why I am applying once more to be SCOPE Director is quite simple. I have a

broad perspective of how our professional exchanges can be improved, and I would like

to be able to follow-up on the work started this term, especially regarding the 4 Big Small

Working Groups within SCOPE, and the new Exchange Database.

I understand that this commitment requires a lot of time, hard work, and dedication.

Once again, I am ready to take up the challenge and I am planning to attend the General

Assemblies, the Team of Officials Meetings, and as many regional meetings and PRETs as

I can, in order to bring technical support and more, when needed.

Last but not least, I would like to express my constant drive to acquire new experiences

and skills; as I personally believe experiences are made through such unique

opportunities. The SCOPE Director position represents a challenge and real opportunity

for me to further my knowledge and to extend the experience I received during my

various extracurricular activities.

If I am elected SCOPE Director, I would fully devote myself to the position and to IFMSA

in general, as I always did. I would also give all the support needed to SCOPEans, NMO

Presidents and my Team of Officials.

Since this approach necessarily takes into account my experience and prior knowledge,

kindly find below my proposed Plan of Action and my Curriculum Vitae.

Should you have any questions regarding my candidature, please, do not hesitate to

contact me.

Sincerely,

Omar CHERKAOUI

4

Plan of Action

Dear IFMSA friends,

I am very honored to share with you below my Plan of Action. These are only main

points of my Plan of Action, otherwise it would take many pages to explain everything

with details. It also remains very flexible, according to the needs of the Team of Officials,

Regions and NMOs, and according to the Pursued Goals of the federation and Officials.

Should you have any questions, please do never hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Omar Cherkaoui

SCOPE Strategic Plan

- Work on a three years SCOPE Strategic Plan, to determine the priorities of our work internationally and the areas that we want to be improved (Draft by MM16, Adoption by AM16)

Academic Quality

- Review the student handbook, updating it and assessing its importance; - Promote the Pre-Departure Trainings, help NMOs implementing it, assessing its

impact on students through evaluation forms; - Start promoting the Upon arrival trainings; - Promote organization of workshops for the incomings to improve their cultural,

medical & clinical knowledge; - Review Evaluation Form statistics for each NMO and their progress; - Encourage the use of Evaluation Forms by students to evaluate their experience.

Promotion

- Exchange Promotional Video; - Promote the use of IFMSA YouTube Playlist of NMOs Promotional videos; - Review the Exchange Profile Book and translate it; - Assess the possibility to work on a mobile app version of the Explore Pages.

5

Advocacy & Recognition

- Work with other medical associations to develop specific student handbooks/checklists for each department;

- Gather as many support/endorsement letters as possible from externals and medical associations, for our exchanges;

- Support and train NEOs and LEOs to get recognition/credits from their university for their exchange program.

Capacity Building

Empower our Exchange Officers, in different ways, to improve their involvement and communication:

- Work on a new model for our exchange trainings: Training New Exchange Trainers (TNET) and Improve the current trainings we have: Professional and Research Exchange Training (PRET),

- Invite NMOs to host those events, and support them all the way, - Continue with the new model of SCOPE Sessions at General Assemblies: Advanced

and Beginner sessions, - Encourage the involvement in the discussions in the NEO and SCOPE Servers.

Database

Final steps for the development of our new exchange database:

- Assure smooth migration, - Produce manuals for a better use, - Provide technical support to NEOs, - Follow-up on the new Evaluation Form and export the first statistics - Follow-up on the new Exchange Conditions template.

As I personally worked on the development of the current database ifmsa.org and its migration from ifmsa.net to ifmsa.org three years ago, and as I developed the proposal for the new database together with the SCOPE International Team, I believe I can provide great follow-up on this huge project.

Giving SCOPE a new breathe: Small Working Groups

I would like to follow-up on the Small Working Groups that we started few weeks ago, to

give SCOPE a fresh look:

6

Accessibility of our exchanges: Implementing the new system and evaluating it

at the end of our term, as per the satisfaction of both hosting NMOs and students.

Trilateral exchanges: Development of the new system, follow-up and evaluation.

Duration of exchanges: Follow-up on the outcomes, and open discussions on

opportunities to offer different length of exchanges.

New NMOs: The activation of new NMOs in SCOPE should be now more regulated,

and should allow us to control the quality of activated NMOs a bit better.

Late CAs: Follow-up on the SWG outcomes, try and evaluate the new CAs system

on the new website, and look for all possibilities to limit the late CAs as much as

possible.

FAQs: Implement the questions/answers on the new website, and follow-up to add

some new ones.

Certificates: Review the SWG outcomes, and update the student/tutor certificates

accordingly.

7

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Information:

Omar CHERKAOUI

Date of birth: 23-03-1991 Gender: Male Marital Status: Single Citizenship: Moroccan Visa: Valid Schengen & US Visa

Education:

-Medical degree, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat (Morocco):

2008-2015: 7th year medical student. Expected graduation date: July 2016

Positions:

Local: 2010: Founder member of “Méd’Ociation” (Rabat Medical Students’ Association)

Email: neo@ifmsa-morocco.org Alternative email: omar7374@gmail.com Mobile phone: +212 6 73 74 92 66 Address: Angle rue Terfaya et Rue My Abdellah Appt 1, Résidence Ourika, BP 1318 14.000 Kénitra, Morocco

Local SecGen & LC

Founder

National NEO, NMO Founder,

OC & NGA Chair

SCOPE IT Database Coordinator

International NTSDD / SCOPE Director

8

2010-2013: Secretary General

National:

2012: Founder member of IFMSA-Morocco 2012-2014: National Exchange Officer (NEO) 2013, 2014: Chair of 3 NGAs of IFMSA-Morocco 2013: Organizing Committee member of the 2nd NGA of IFMSA-Morocco

SCOPE International Team: 2012-2013: SCOPE Database Coordinator

International: 2012-2013: IFMSA New Technologies Support Division Coordinator per interim 2013-2014: IFMSA New Technologies Support Division Coordinator 2014-2015: IFMSA SCOPE Director

IFMSA meetings:

IFMSA National General Assemblies:

- Chair of IFMSA-Morocco 1st NGA (Rabat, Morocco), 2nd NGA (Marrakech, Morocco) and 3rd NGA (Fes, Morocco)

IFMSA General Assemblies:

- AM12 (India) MM13 (USA) AM13 (Chile) MM14 (Tunisia) AM14 (Taiwan) MM15 (Turkey)

IFMSA Regional Meetings:

- Americas 2014 (Panama), EMR 2014 (Kuwait), EMR 2015 (Egypt), Asia-Pacific 2015 (Philippines)

IFMSA Team of Officials Meetings:

- TOM 0 (Chile, 2013), TOM 1 (Greece, 2013), TOM 2 (Panama, 2014), TOM 3 (Tunisia, 2014), TOM 4 (Netherlands, 2014), TOM 5 (Taiwan, 2014), TOM 0 (Taiwan, 2014), TOM 1 (Morocco, 2014), TOM 2 (Croatia, 2014), TOM 3 (Turkey, 2015), TOM 4 (Portugal, 2015).

PRETs / TNT / TOT:

- TNT: Santiago de Chile, Chile (2013) - TOT: Kuwait city, Kuwait (2014) - PRET: Vienna, Austria (2014) - PRET: Dahab, Egypt (2015) - PRET/Pre-RM on Exchanges: Batangas, Philippines (2015)

Other:

- ANEMF-France NGA: Lyon (2013) and Nice (2014)

6 IFMSA General

Assemblies

4 IFMSA Regional

Meetings

11 Team of Officials

Meetings

5 PRETs / TNT / TOT

3 National General

Assemblies

9

- IFMSA-Morocco Team of Officials Meeting: 2014 - Med-e-Tel Conference of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth

(ISfTeH): Luxembourg (2014 - Professional Exchanges: Toulouse, France (2011) Toulouse, France (2012), Vienna,

Austria (2014)

Languages:

Arabic: Native. French: Fluent. English: Fluent. Spanish: Beginner.

Skills:

-Computer skills: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Power Point), Content Management System, Databases management, Audio & Video editing (Adobe Premiere Pro), Basic knowledge of HTML, PHP & CSS -Developed the website of “Méd’Ociation”, LC Rabat -Developed the website of IFMSA-Morocco: www.ifmsa-morocco.org -Administrator, content editor and database manager of the IFMSA Website: www.ifmsa.org

10