Shushan Hovsepyan, Editor-in-Chief of OncoDaily Medical Journal and Co-Chair of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology Global Health Network Research and Innovation Working Group, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Mumbai…Years ago.
A workshop I almost didn’t apply to.
I almost didn’t. I looked at the fee, the location and timing and quietly decided I wasn’t the kind of person.
I applied anyway, mostly out of stubbornness.
It remains one of the best decisions I’ve made.
I remember palm trees. A campus green and open enough that you could breathe between sessions — and then work harder than you had in years.
A completely different world from the one I’d flown in from.
I remember the people most. Fellows and faculty from countries I’d only read about in author lists at that time, all working on the same problems from wildly different starting points.
For the first time, I wasn’t the only one asking those particular questions. You learn as much at dinner as in the lecture hall.
I remember 9 PM. After a full day of lectures and conversations that didn’t stop at the coffee break, nobody went to bed. We sat together, hunched over laptops, rewriting our protocols so faculty would have something to tear apart in the morning. They always did. That was the point. Someone taking your work seriously enough to dismantle it is a kind of respect you don’t forget.
But it wasn’t only that. CREDO never forgets the other half. Team games that got competitive fast. And Holi — colour everywhere. I still have those photos. I still smile at them.
CREDO changed how I think about clinical research. Not in a vague, inspirational way. In a ‘I still use this every time I look at a protocol’ way.
Careers change. Institutions change. That week didn’t leave me.
So if you want simililar experience, applications close July 31st.
And one thing, because I know it’s the reason people don’t apply: the registration fee. Almost every participant is supported through external grants — roughly 90% of the fee covered.
Recently I was watching Shark Tank and picked up a line: 20% of life is what happens to you, 80% is what you decide about it. Most of what stops careers isn’t an obstacle — it’s an assumption nobody checked. So don’t let that 20% decide for you…”
Other posts featuring Shushan Hovsepyan on OncoDaily.