Tess on her graduation day with brother John, sister Ellie and parents Jeni and Oliver.

Three academic medals for medicine graduate

A 24-year-old medicine graduate from Lobinstown was awarded three prestigious medals at University College Dublin after finishing first out of the 277 graduates on the programme.

Tess Meade recently began her intern year at the Mater Hospital after graduating from UCD on 6th June where she was awarded three medals: the 1941 Medal which is presented annually to the graduate with the highest grade point average (GPA) in the Medicine Programme; the DK O' Donovan Medal which is awarded to the graduate with the highest combined scores in the Medicine I, Medicine II, Medicine in the Community, Professional Completion modules and obtained honours in the degree of MB, BCh, and BAO; and the Brian McGovern Perpetual Medal for the highest total marks in Medicine I and Medicine II.

Prior to graduating, she also earned a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania for a month long internship in March of this year. She has now begun her internship at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital Dublin where she will do rotations in colorectal surgery, anaesthetics, cardiology and nephrology.

Tess is a daughter of Oliver and Jeni Meade. Her mother is originally from Virginia in the United States and Oliver is a beef farmer.

Tess went to primary school in Newtown NS and to secondary school O'Carolan College, which her father had also attended. She told how during her Leaving Certificate year she wasn't sure if she wanted to do medicine as she was also very interested in other areas but on the advice of her career guidance teacher, she did the Hpat exam to keep her options open.

Tess Meade, David Carolan, Shauna Galligan and Aimee Brennan who all received scholarships to do a month long internship at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, the oldest hospital in the US, founded in 1751.

"I was a bit torn," she recalled. "My mother heard the stories of junior doctors working so hard and such long hours. I really liked maths and applied maths too. I had a really good guidance counsellor and she advised me to do the Hpat and keep my options open. I was quite interested in nutrition as well and she said I could do medicine and then go into sport and nutrition. She gave me great advice to aim high and even if you don't think you will get it to have it there."

Tess decided to put UCD as her first option after going to the open day and felt it was the best fit for her, and she is also quite sporty.

Not only did Tess get her points, she also earned a scholarship to UCD where she excelled to finish first out of the 277 students who graduated.

Principal of O'Carolan College, Brian Goggins said:" We are extremely proud of Tess’s achievements here in O’Carolan College. Tess was awarded Academic Student of the Year in 2018 and also secured a place on the coveted Ad Astra programme, which celebrates the talents of the very highest achievers that UCD has to offer. Tess was an outstanding student and a very popular member of her year, both with staff and students. We are so delighted to see her continue to achieve at third level and know that she will continue to be a trailblazer in her chosen field. We are very glad to have been a part of helping her to achieve her ambitions."

Tess started on the wards in recent weeks and will do four different rotations - two medical and two surgical. The eldest of three children, her sister Ellie (23) is studying food and agribusiness and doing her accountancy exams, while her brother Josh (20) is studying chemical engineering.