Ryan See's placement experiences

James Cook University (JCU), 5^th year Bachelor of Dental Surgery international student, Ryan Yue-Hin See moved from his hometown of Toronto, Canada to come to Australia to study in the tropics with James Cook University in Cairns.

See said JCU’s unique rural and remote placement program was an unmissable Australian opportunity.

“I had a couple of offers available and JCU just seemed much more appealing than the other offers. I just wanted to study in the tropics really growing up in Canada. The facilities were brand new facilities and there was a big focus on rural and remote and underserviced populations. That really appealed to me and the kind of things that I am interested in. I knew there was allot of work available, so I thought it would be a good experience,” He said.

He said the rural and remote placements that JCU provide help to transition students into real world practice and give them a chance to apply learnt skills on real life patients.

“Allot of personal development has happened in the last two years. I mean 5 years is a pretty long time so, a combination of I guess up to date training they [JCU] provide at the union level but also just the exposures we’re given from the [JCU] rural and remote placements and working with really great supervisors in the clinic.” Said See.

See’s said due to the array of clinical specialists that JCU employ to lecture and teach students he has gained a valuable array of new skills that will advance him in his future career.

“Most of them tend to be, retired dentists and they bring a wealth of knowledge and they don’t tend to be cairns locals because they are fly in, fly out. They come from all over the place really. Everyone has their own sort of thing just a range of personalities, a range of skills and doing things. How to handle different situations,” he said.

See said he got the life changing opportunity to complete a 4 week international placement at JCU’s sister university in Sri Lanka.

“It was fantastic. It was just life changing really. The university [JCU] was really generous and sent us and one of our senior lecturers back to his home country [Sri Lanka]. So, he showed us around and the professors that we met were his old students which was kind of cool to see that continuity. We saw lots of different things. Lots of stuff which you would expect in south East Asia and low socio economic areas.”

On placement, See got the chance to explore Sri Lankan historical landmarks and learn the language.

“The professor it being his home country showed us around and we got to go sightseeing and have language classes as well, lots of cultural exposure.”

See said one of the most memorable experiences he had in Sri Lanka was walking up Sigiriya.

“We did was this big hike up a place called The Lions Rock. The locals call it Sigiriya. It’s this big monument, similar to Uluru and you have to climb up all these steps all the way to the top and at the top there used to be this castle that was built,” he said.

Ryan See said that over the 5 years he’s lived in Australia it has become his second home and the support he has received through JCU has helped him integrate into the Cairns community.

“I love the lifestyle. I think more than anything else the people kind of make the place. It’s a bit cliché but they have become my family over the last two years.” Said See.

See said each year has its own landmark and if, he was to give advice to a prospective JCU international student, he would tell them to go for it and take a chance.