Dr Patrick Chin-Kong

Med­ical Doc­tor, San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal

As a young doc­tor, I’d like to con­grat­u­late all the stu­dents on pass­ing their SEA ex­am­i­na­tions, whether it be your first, sec­ond, third or even fourth choice. Con­grat­u­la­tions to all the stu­dents!

A lot of ex­cite­ment for those who passed for their first choice, and for those who didn’t, don’t keep your­self down. I want you to be proud of your­self and par­ent/s or guardians I want you to keep your hopes up for your child.

Not pass­ing for your first choice isn’t the end, es­pe­cial­ly, if your ca­reer choice is to be­come a med­ical doc­tor as my­self. I did not have the plea­sure of pass­ing for my first choice, but it did not de­ter my goals, rather I think it fu­elled it fur­ther.

I at­tend­ed Pri­ma­ry school in my home town of Point Fortin, both St Cather­ine’s Ro­man Catholic School and Point Fortin Ro­man Catholic School. Then I fur­thered my stud­ies by do­ing CSEC at Ves­signy Sec­ondary School and CAPE at AS­JA Boys’ San Fer­nan­do. Sub­se­quent­ly, I grad­u­at­ed with my MBBS (Bach­e­lors of Med­i­cine, Bach­e­lors of Surgery) with Hon­ors at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus, in ad­di­tion to be­ing the MBBS Class Vale­dic­to­ri­an 2017. I am cur­rent­ly pur­su­ing my ca­reer in Pae­di­atrics, which has been my goal since teenage years. I am al­so cur­rent­ly the Chair­man for the South Branch of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Med­ical As­so­ci­a­tion (T&TMA) for 2021.

I want to en­cour­age young in­di­vid­u­als, no mat­ter what Sec­ondary school you may pass for and are cur­rent­ly at­tend­ing, don’t give up on your goals. With good sup­port from your fam­i­ly, friends, teach­ers and faith in your God, you can achieve any­thing you set for your­self. Be a life­long learn­er.

“Ed­u­ca­tion is the most pow­er­ful weapon you can use to change the world” – Nel­son Man­dela.