UNDERDOG MENTORING
A level playing field for all people
ABOUT
A Bit of Background
No one can achieve much without other people's help. Underdog Mentoring is a free grassroots mentoring organisation based in Sydney and London. We aim to level the playing field for people who don't have access to mentors and professional connections. Set up by a cardiothoracic surgeon in 2020, our philosophy is to pass down the career help we received from our own mentors without which we would not have been able to achieve anything.
OPPORTUNITIES
Underdog Mentoring posts opportunities in the following section when we hear about them. If you have an opportunity you would like to post on here email
SYDNEY-BASED UNI SCHOLARSHIP PAGES
Sydney-based universities USYD, UNSW and UTS have details of domestic and international scholarships as well as prizes and awards here:
There are many highly-specific scholarships which have criteria only a few people can meet. Find a scholarship for which you're a perfect match and there is a good chance you could get it. For help and advice on scholarships email
GRANTCONNECT
GrantConnect is the Australian Government's whole-of-government, centralised, research grant information system. It provides a free service for all potential grant applicants to find and access Commonwealth grant opportunities and related documentation.
WELLCOME INNOVATOR AWARDS
These awards support researchers who are transforming great ideas into healthcare innovations that could have a significant impact on human health.
Open internationally. Shortlisting meetings happen every three months. Up to £500,000, or up to £750,000 for multidisciplinary collaborations. Usually for up to 24 months, or up to 36 months for multidisciplinary collaborations.
Who can apply: Innovator Awards are open to researchers who are developing healthcare innovations that could have a major and measurable impact on human health. Individuals and teams from not-for-profit and commercial organisations can apply. Organisations can be of any size, based anywhere in the world.
THE RONIN INSTITUTE FOR INDEPENDENT SCHOLARSHIP
Want to do research independently without getting involved in a university? Look into the Ronin Institute.
The Ronin Institute is devoted to facilitating and promoting scholarly research outside traditional academic research institutions.
Read more here:
https://www.wired.com/2012/05/the-rise-of-fractional-scholarship-and-the-ronin-institute/
AMP'S TOMORROW FUND
Established in 2014, AMP’s Tomorrow Fund awards up to $1 million in grants each year to amazing Australians doing great things in their communities. Grant recipients work in a diverse range of fields and include artists, athletes, social innovators, scientists, educators, disability advocates, technologists, filmmakers, fashion designers, medical researchers and musicians. The grants can be used for a range of activities, including travel, equipment, study costs, research and more.
CSL FLOREY NEXT GENERATION AWARD
The CSL Florey Next Generation Award is for a current PhD candidate who has demonstrated outstanding capability, creativity and potential in the biomedical sciences and/or health and medical research. It has been developed to encourage and support promising health and medical researchers early in their careers and includes a $20,000 prize and two runner-up prizes of $2,500 each.
RESOURCES
Everyone's learning style is different, try some of these tools to maximise your learning
ANKI SPACED REPETITION LEARNING
ANKI is a spaced-repetition learning software programme which is free on most systems. It’s a simple concept which is good for high volume fact-based learning.
You can get it here: https://apps.ankiweb.net/
And here is a Youtube tutorial about it which students have found useful (should take about 30 mins): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5urUZUWoTLo
ENDNOTE VIDEO COURSE
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS CCRISP AND START SURGERY
The RCS has made some of their world class course materials available for free online in response to the coronavirus situation.
Click here for free access to materials from the Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient (CCrISP) participant handbook.
Click here for Systematic Training in Acute Illness Recognition and Treatment (START) videos and the Human Factors section.
HEALTH EDUCATION ENGLAND CORONAVIRUS E-LEARNING
Click here for a free coronavirus e-learning programme by HEE.
The resources above are just suggestions passed on by Underdog Mentoring. We don't receive any benefit from them, they are just tools our people have found useful. If you have a suggestion for a resource which could help people, email us:
THINGS TO READ
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY NEWS (AU)
Tess Gibney
Uluru Statement from the Heart wins 2021 Sydney Peace Prize (published 26 May 2021; added 28 May 2021)
THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND (UK)
Helena Kennedy
The Royal College - Our Professional Home: An Independent Review On Diversity And Inclusion (published 18 Mar 2021; added 29 Mar 2021)
https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/about-the-rcs/about-our-mission/diversity-review-2021/
SOCIETY FOR CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY BULLETIN (UK)
David O'Regan
Teaching and Training - Touching Lives [page 44] (Published Aug 2020; added 3 Feb 2021)
https://issuu.com/open-box/docs/scts_bulletin_08?fr=sNzAxODE2MDM0OTU
THE KINGS FUND (UK)
Suzie Bailey and Michael West
Recovery and then renewal: the innovation imperative for health and care (published 29 Jan 2021; added 1 Feb 2021)
THE CONVERSATION (AU)
Nareen Young and Mark Ragg
10 ways employers can include indigenous Australians (published 17 Nov 2020; added 2 Dec 2020)
https://theconversation.com/10-ways-employers-can-include-indigenous-australians-149741
THE OBSERVER / GUARDIAN (AU/UK)
John Naughton
From viral conspiracies to exam fiascos, algorithms come with serious side effects (published 6 Sept 2020; added 7 Sept 2020)
RCS BULLETIN (UK)
G Winter
How other professions cope with burnout (published 31 Aug 2020; added 3 Sept 2020)
NITV NEWS (AU)
Mikele Syron
Report finds Indigenous people with a disability are more likely to experience discrimination (published 28 Aug 2020; added 1 Sept 2020)
See also:
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
Disability support for Indigenous Australians (published 11 Sept 2019; added 1 Sept 2020)
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/disability-support-for-indigenous-australians
9NEWS (AU)
Kiersten Papasidero
Petition to free the Aboriginal flag from copyright law reaches 100,000 signatures (published 21 Aug 2020; added 25 Aug 2020)
See also:
THE CONVERSATION
Isabella Alexander
Explainer: our copyright laws and the Australian Aboriginal flag (published 13 Jun 2019; added 25 Aug 2020)
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (AU)
Research Snapshot
Protecting traditional knowledge (published 13 Aug 2020; added 25 Aug 2020)
THE GUARDIAN (AU)
Matilda Boseley
Victorian government and First Peoples' Assembly to begin 'momentous' treaty negotiations (published 3 Aug 2020; added 3 Aug 2020)
SBS NEWS (AU)
Naveen Razik
Victoria to introduce Australia's first truth-telling process to address Indigenous injustices (published 11 Jul 2020; added 11 Jul 2020)
VICE NEWS (UK)
Hannah Ewens
Inside the Great British TERF War: Transphobia in the British Media (published 16 Jun 2020; added 23 Jun 2020)
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/889qe5/trans-rights-uk-debate-terfs
See also:
Sam Feder & Laverne Cox, Disclosure (Documentary; Netflix: June 2020)
Trailer:
THE INDEPENDENT (UK)
Jayne Hardy
Four simple changes to make to improve your mental health in tough times (published 21 Jun 2020; added 22 Jun 2020)
BBC NEWS (AU)
BBC
Indigenous deaths in custody: Why Australians are seizing on US protests (published 5 Jun 2020; added 6 Jun 2020)
VICE NEWS (UK)
Ruby Lott-Lavigna
A Practical List of Ways to Support the George Floyd Protests in the UK (added 5 Jun 2020; published 2 Jun 2020)
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/4ayvzm/support-george-floyd-protests-uk
NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
YY Hu, et al.
Discrimination, Abuse, Harassment, and Burnout in Surgical Residency Training (added 29 Apr 2020; published 31 Oct 2020)
N Engl J Med 2019; 381:1741-1752
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1903759
THE GUARDIAN
David Batty
BAME trainee doctors in 'climate of fear' over racism (added 29 Apr 2020; published 14 Feb 2020)
THE LANCET (UK)
Richard Horton
COVID-19 and the NHS—“a national scandal” (28 Mar 2020)
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30727-3/fulltext
See also:
Richard Horton (The Guardian)
Coronavirus is the greatest global science policy failure in a generation (9 Apr 2020)
THE GUARDIAN
Emine Saner
'Think about the best-case scenario': how to manage coronavirus anxiety (23 Mar 2020)
UNITED NATIONS
UN Gender Social Norms Index
Tackling social norms: A game changer for social inequalities
In the news:
Gender study finds 90% of people are biased against women
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51751915
Nine out of 10 people found to be biased against women
RCS BULLETIN (UK)
M Taylor
Why is there a shortage of doctors in the UK?
Volume: 102 Issue: 3, March 2020, pp. 78-81
https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsbull.2020.78
Published online: March 02, 2020
RCS BULLETIN (UK)
J Glass, et al.
National selection – fit for purpose?
Volume: 102 Issue: 3, March 2020, pp. 82-85
https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsbull.2020.82
Published online: March 02, 2020
RCS BULLETIN (UK)
R Galaiya & T Arulampalam
Burnout in surgeons: talking the talk but not walking the walk
Volume: 102 Issue: 2, February 2020
https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsbull.2020.e003
Published online: February 27, 2020
KINGS FUND (UK)
Michael West
It’s not about the money: staff engagement comes first (7 Mar 2018)
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2018/03/staff-engagement-comes-first
KINGS FUND (UK)
Bilal Sahib
Five ways to improve junior doctor morale (19 Feb 2018)
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2018/02/five-ways-improve-junior-doctor-morale
ABOUT US
NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT A TEAM
We are a non-hierarchical network based on the idea that we only achieve anything by helping each other.
HOW IT STARTED
A junior cardiothoracic surgeon and PhD student realised he was taking a lot and not giving enough back.
So Underdog Mentoring was set up to try and even things out.
WHERE WE HAVE CONTACTS
We currently have contacts in Australia, the UK, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, Mexico, Canada and the USA.
Our contacts specialise in a broad range of subjects/industries, including medicine, surgery, commerce (business), teaching, journalism and creative writing.
If you would like to become a contact/mentor and give something back yourself, please get in touch with us at
WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU?
Underdog Mentoring has helped people in various ways and every mentee wants something different.
Everything we do is 100% free. What makes us different is that we're passing down to other people the help we were lucky enough to receive ourselves from our own mentors and contacts. The word grassroots means we throw out the seeds and see what grows from this. We don't control or micromanage what our mentors and mentees do, we put them in touch and let them do whatever works for them.
EXAMPLES OF HOW WE HAVE HELPED
In the past we have provided essay guidance, general or career advice, CV guidance, help with applications, exam advice, pointed people in the right direction for their mental health or administrative questions and put people in touch with the right contacts to help them achieve what they want to achieve.
WHAT WE CAN'T DO
Whilst we can sometimes point you in the direction of scholarships, we cannot give you money - that's an easy one because we don't have any to give!
We can help with some types of work but we aren't focused on tutoring and we cannot do your work for you!
START THE CONVERSATION
Email us if you want to find out more. We can't always help but there's a good chance we can:
We will never ask for your personal details other than those needed to get in touch with you such as an email address, name and possibly phone number.
TESTIMONIALS
I would just like to extend a sincere thank you for all your guidance, mentoring...over semester 2, 2019. It was invaluable and I definitely made use of all the tips and tricks you shared with me. I achieved a credit in both of my anatomy subjects and although I would’ve liked to score a bit better, I feel it was a really great improvement for me and really reignited my love for learning and discipline for study.