{"id":12351,"date":"2024-06-19T09:31:20","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T16:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/?p=12351"},"modified":"2024-06-19T09:31:20","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T16:31:20","slug":"governor-generals-silver-medal-2024-winner-amrit-singh-bsc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/2024\/06\/19\/governor-generals-silver-medal-2024-winner-amrit-singh-bsc\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor General’s Silver Medal 2024 Winner: Amrit Singh, BSc"},"content":{"rendered":"

From UFV Now:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Amrit Singh sets his mind on an academic goal, he usually achieves it. So, when he zeroed in on winning the Governor General\u2019s Silver Medal for 2024, odds were good he\u2019d win it.<\/p>\n

It took a ton of work to achieve the highest standing in an undergraduate degree program, but Singh did what he set out to do with an overall GPA of 4.27.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard of it a long time ago and I\u2019ve been wanting to win it for quite a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singh is graduating with a Bachelor of Science\u00a0 (biology major) from the Pre-Medicine\/Pre-Veterinary concentration program. Choosing a career in medicine, he says, was inspired by watching his dad navigate the health care system. His father was diagnosed with cancer and died in 2019. From that experience, Singh identified significant gaps in knowledge, research, and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized there\u2019s a lot of pain, and the job for someone in that profession should be to minimize pain and maximize comfort for patients and their families,\u201d Singh said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I want to do it. I\u2019ve felt that side and I don\u2019t want other people to feel what it\u2019s like to go through all the trials and tribulations my family went through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singh emerged from the experience with a keen interest in oncology \u2014 the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. As he carries on to med school and chooses a specialty, that\u2019s one possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to better understand how it (cancer) works and figure out exactly what happened to my father.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever specialty he runs with, Singh eventually hopes to have his own clinic in the Fraser Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been a dream of mine, to work on a more personal level with patients,\u201d he says. \u201cInstead of a quick visit to a doctor\u2019s office, I want my clinic to be more of a sit-down, chat-for-an-hour thing where my patients and I work through a problem as a team. I\u2019d love to help people out in our local community, because this area feels like home to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his time at UFV, Singh says he could list dozens of people who\u2019ve made his educational experience a great one, but James Bedard (associate professor, biology), Justin Lee (biology department head and assistant professor) and Nathan Bialas (associate professor, biology) stand out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do wish I could mention more,\u201d he says with a smile. \u201cI could go on and on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singh wants to give special credit to his mother and sister.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout their continued support, I would not have received this prestigious award,\u201d he says. \u201cThey helped me by not only giving me as much time as I needed for assignments, but also via emotional support, especially during tough periods of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singh will have them in mind, and in the audience, when he walks across the stage at Convocation. He\u2019s wondered how that moment will feel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m planning on taking a gap year, so for the first time since I was five years old, I\u2019m not going to be a student,\u201d he says with a grin. \u201cI think there\u2019s going to be a moment of \u2018Is this real? Is this happening?\u2019 and I am expecting a mix of emotions. My time here is something I can never go back to, which is sad in a way, but at the end of the day I\u2019m also proud of what I\u2019ve done and I\u2019m excited about taking the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From UFV Now: When Amrit Singh sets his mind on an academic goal, he usually achieves it. So, when he zeroed in on winning the Governor General\u2019s Silver Medal for 2024, odds were good he\u2019d win it. It took a ton of work to achieve the highest standing in an undergraduate degree program, but Singh … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":12352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bachelor-of-science","category-biology","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12354,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12351\/revisions\/12354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}