"I want every student to recognize that they deserve to be here, and that they can achieve anything," fourth-year medical student Victor Do says.
When Victor Do was accepted into medical school at the University of Alberta, he didn't believe it. Even after he had paid his fees, he thought the school had made a mistake. Surely, he thought, a guy like me doesn't have what it takes to stand beside the amazing medical students at the U of A. He couldn't have been more wrong.
Victor says he had an average childhood and was an unremarkable student growing up. The lifelong Edmontonian and only child of immigrant parents remembers always wanting to help people and being interested in health care, but suffering from self-doubt, deciding to pursue medicine came at the start of his second year of university.
"I'm just a regular guy," he says. "It took me a while to believe in myself. Once I realized that my skill set and my interest in research, teaching, working with people and improving systems really fit with the opportunities in medicine, the switch just clicked for me and I feel so lucky to have this opportunity."
However, Victor says 10 years as a competitive figure skater helped boost his self-confidence.
"My parents wanted me to learn to skate because they said, 'Canadians should know how to skate,'" Victor laughs. "They weren't interested in me playing hockey, though, because it was a bit rough."
"I think my time skating taught me a lot, and really shaped my approach to medical school. It showed me how to work hard, the importance of being dedicated, having a set of core principles and sticking to them, and how to raise your game in high-pressure situations."
Seeds of doubt
Even before medical school, Victor was always drawn to advocacy and leadership roles, he says. "Though I have to admit, sometimes I would doubt whether I was good enough to contribute."
Victor says he mostly stuck to studying during his first year of medical school, when lingering self-doubt kept him from participating in many activities. Luckily, after a year in medical school, his friends encouraged him to set aside his insecurities and run for the Medical Student Association (MSA) executive team. In 2017, he was elected as vice-president external, a position that ignited his passion for student governance, advocacy and administration.
Joining CFMS
In his new role of VP external, Victor attended a meeting in Winnipeg of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS), which represents more than 8,000 medical students from 15 Canadian schools. There, he saw an extraordinary opportunity to impact both the lives of medical students and the health-care system across Canada. He also discovered the U of A had no representation on the CFMS board, and had been under-represented for several years.
"That was concerning to me because the CFMS is a national voice, and I think the U of A have a lot to bring whenever we're at the table," he says. "We have unique perspectives, we have a long history, we should have someone on the board."
So when Victor was given the opportunity to run for a position on the CFMS board, he leapt at the chance, becoming one of two western regional directors. Working on the student affairs and wellness portfolios, he developed the CFMS National Wellness Program and worked to ensure student well-being was on everyone's agenda.
"When I started with CFMS, few were really talking about the physician wellness issue," he says, "and as an organization we were doing minimal work on student well-being, so that was something that I could push forward. Now, three years later, everyone's talking about it, and it's become an important topic in health care because we know provider health greatly affects patient and health systems outcomes. We also know how important health promoting learning environments are to developing effective future physicians."
Victor was elected CFMS director of Student Affairs and named executive vice-president of the board in 2018. In 2019, he ran for president and won, becoming only the fourth CFMS president from the U of A, and the first of Canadian-Chinese heritage.
As CFMS president, Victor sees an opportunity to help take medicine in a new direction and prepare students for a world where technology and change are advancing at an ever-increasing pace.
"I want to make CFMS a modern organization; I want it to be strategic," he says. "We need to create the leaders of the future, and I see CFMS as playing a big role for students across the country."
A little help from his friends
Victor overcame his self-doubt and recognized his ability to lead thanks to some key mentors. Late dean Richard Fedorak helped Victor make the decision to run for the CFMS board, and the support and guidance from other faculty members, in particular the Office of Advocacy and Wellbeing, helped him strike a balance between the work of the CFMS and demands of medical school. He also notes significant support through scholarships helped him accomplish his dreams.
"I wouldn't be here without the generosity of the U of A community," he says. "Every day I feel like I've won the lottery. I also wouldn't be here without my friends, especially my close group in medical school, who have done more to support me than they can ever be thanked for.
"The spirit inherent in our university is 'So long as you put in the work and effort you can do anything. If there are barriers in your way, there are people here to help you overcome them.
It's this spirit Victor hopes to pass on to his classmates and to future students.
"I want every student to recognize that they deserve to be here, and that they can achieve anything. There's always a way to make a difference, whether in the hospital, in the classroom or in the community."
*********
As he nears the end of his time at the university and prepares for residency and beyond, Victor says he hopes to continue his research and work toward a possible future in administration leadership. Does he have his eye on being dean of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry one day? Victor just laughs and shrugs his shoulders.
For now, Victor is focused on the opportunities that will come when school is over, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, how to remain true to his humble self with the new title of 'Doctor.'
"People sometimes mispronounce my last name, so I've been asked, 'Do you want to be called Dr. DEW or Dr. DOE?' " he says. "I tell them, 'That's easy.'"
"Just call me Victor."