`I will spread Korea`s advanced medicinal skills across Mongol`

“I was able to adapt well to the new environment in Korea because all the professors taught me kindly and precisely even in minute details. As doctors here are allowed to remain in lab as long as they want, I stayed in labs all the time to study except for sleeping hours. As a result I had no chance to suffer from homesick.”

Above is a remark by Enk Bayershaihan, 31, who is the first graduate of the Lee Gil-yeo Fellowship that provides full scholarship including living expenses of selected talents from developing countries for four years. She will start working at a national cancer center in Mongolia after graduation on August 21.

The fellowship was launched in 2008 marking the 50th anniversary of the Gacheon Gil Foundation by the wish of Chairman Lee Gil-yeo who received medical practice in the U.S. in the 1960s, when medical environment was very poor in Korea. The goal of the fellowship is to go beyond just practicing medical service in developing countries by nurturing medical staff in such countries.

Lee said, “I wanted to help talents in developing countries become world-class medical personnel. I thought this is what love for the country means and the way to contribute to health and happiness of humankind.”

The foundation collected lists of talents from national medical centers in developing countries. Through a thorough examination, Enk was selected as the first beneficiary of the scholarship. Back then, she was a medical resident of the oncology department at the National Cancer Centre of Mongolia. She said, “In Mongolia, many cancer patients die because we don’t have the technology to diagnose early stage cancers. I wanted to learn advanced medicine for cancer study abroad, but tuition and living cost were out of reach.”

The Mongolian doctor has received yearly tuition of 10 million won (9,000 U.S. dollars), 1.3 million won (1,160 dollars) for monthly living cost and about 500 million won (447,000 dollars) for research materials. During her four-and-a-half year stay in Korea, she earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in molecular medicine at Gacheon Medical University. With the help of her advisor Lee Bong-hui, her name was included in six SCI-level theses as a co-researcher. Dr. Lee is the director of Genetic Proteome Center at the Lee Gil-yeo Research Labs for Cancer and Diabetes. Enk could also finish her graduation thesis based on the result of a collaborative study conducted with a fund amounting to 600 million won (536,000 dollars) received from the National Cancer Center of Korea.

Another advisor Byeon Gyeong-hui, a professor at Gacheon School of Medicine, said, “When Mongolian doctors visit Korea, they would call Enk to help them give a presentation at medical conferences. As Enk is a brilliant talent, she will become a prominent doctor in the Mongolian medical circle down the road.”

“If I get a chance to teach medical students in my country, I will definitely tell them how advanced Korean medical technologies are. I wish more Mongolian students will get a chance to study in Korea,” Enk said with a big smile.