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Azmaeen Zarif (Medicine 2018) has become the first recipient of the Deepak Jadon Community Impact Prize for his outstanding contribution to his clinical years of study.

Azmaeen received the award at the Declaration Ceremony for medical students on Sunday 16 June. The University of Cambridge-wide prize “aims to recognise students who show impeccable professionalism and make outstanding contributions during placements and/or within the Clinical School community”. The prize is named in recognition of Dr Deepak Jadon, a consultant rheumatologist at Cambridge University Hospitals and Clinical Director of Studies at Emmanuel College, who died in 2023. 

“I’m very honoured,” says Azmaeen, who has been President of the Cambridge Medical Society (CMS) alongside many other society and supra-curricular positions.

“It genuinely does mean a lot. I am deeply humbled to be to be selected by his friends and his colleagues, people who've known him so well, and to honour his legacy.”

Typically, Azmaeen thought of others when reflecting on his six years at �²ʿ��� and Cambridge, sharing advice for prospective applicants and those offer holders hoping to start in October.

“I very much came into very much came into first year thinking, ‘oh, there's a set way of going about things. You know, you've got to do A, B and C in that order’,” he adds. 

“Over time, I think what I've learned is you very much write your own story here. You explore what you want to focus on or you emphasise what aspect you want to in your daily plan. You should explore the opportunities that interest you most. There is no correct way of going about things and if you can change that mindset then it can be a very, very enjoyable experience, regardless of your interests, regardless of what you want to do.

“It is possible to balance things, but it's very important to have that mindset that there is no right Cambridge. There is only your story of Cambridge to write.”

Azmaeen’s next step is a Clarendon Scholarship at the University of Oxford, for a Masters in Oncology.

He took the opportunity to reflect on the personal relationships formed during his time at Caius.

He adds: “I have had the best opportunities to meet some wonderful people, who I know will be friends for life. Going through medical school very much strengthens that bond, but not just medics, lawyers, engineers, people I met on the first day of first year that I still keep in touch with.”

A previous interview with Azmaeen, from March 2021, is on the College website: