Desmond Kong, born and raised in Jasper, is leaving Canada to start his post-secondary schooling in the United Kingdom. The 18-year-old has plans to become a doctor, a general practitioner, perhaps even in a small Canadian community one day, maybe even in Jasper. He’s not entirely sure yet, but one thing is for certain; Kong wants to help people.

“Our family motto has always been to help people. My parents, they taught me to do good, I have to be good to other people,” said Kong.

To that end, this October 5, Kong will be starting a five-year medical program at the University of Leicester Medical School in the U.K. The 22,000-student university has a prestigious pedigree focused on intense research and its welcoming attitude towards international students. In 2008, it was named the University of the Year by the Times Higher Education at their annual ceremony.

During the five years, Kong will be living on campus in a university situated in one of the oldest cities in all of England, about two hours drive north of London. The campus appears mainly modern and eschews the spires and flying buttresses of universities like Oxford. The green fields of the centuries old, 69-acre Victoria Park (The People’s Park) however are right next door and about a mile south from downtown Leicester.

The five-year program will be followed by two years of residency with the option to spend one year at any proper medical facility in the world, something Kong is looking forward to.

The overseas, new culture component of Kong’s whole schooling experience is something he is looking forward to most, perhaps because in Jasper, Kong says he felt somewhat stifled.

Kong says he would never have been able to go to the University of Leicester if he hadn’t left Jasper High School several years ago.

Since the 2007-2008 school year Kong has been attending and living at the Brentwood College boarding school in B.C. on Vancouver Island. A prestigious school, Kong says he got to do things there that he never would have been able to do in Jasper. Rugby, sculpting, golf, rowing; “There was just so many different life experiences that I got there.

“In Jasper, there were times when I felt like I didn’t even have to hand in an assignment and I’d still get really good marks,” said Kong, who went to high school in Jasper for Grades 7, 8 and 9. At Brentwood, things were different. He couldn’t coast by on his reputation as an intelligent student, he said. The demands were stricter, the standards higher. He had to work harder and he believes he is better off for it.

Most importantly, Kong believes that the network of friends built up at Brentwood will aid him most in life. He met people from Kazakhstan, Barbados, the United Kingdom and from other parts unknown. Kong believes that this new, wide network of friends and associates is also something he never would have gained in Jasper.

For example, Kong found out about the University of Leicester while at Brentwood. He doubts that he would have even heard about it had he stayed in Jasper. Brentwood has numerous connections to the U.K. schooling system and Kong used that network to learn about his future university. 

“Jasper can be very single minded sometimes,” said Kong. “It’s not a bad place at all, but I would like to see the rest of the world.”

He talks fondly of taking time off from school to go traveling into Europe and of experiencing new cultures. He’s travelled to the United Kingdom before (over the 2010 Canada Day holidays he went to interview at Leicester) and he speaks of the uniquely intelligent and cool ways that cities are designed and laid out there.

Not that he expects to have much free time. Kong’s program will be intense. It is strictly focused on medical classes (Kong said that he had civics and current events courses at Brentwood and doesn’t feel the need to wander too much intellectually at university) so Kong will essentially be all medicine, all the time at Leicester.

Kong expects that he’ll be able to handle the course load. He’s not totally sure how intense the workload is going to be, but several of the courses that he did in his final year at Brentwood were accredited university courses. Kong expects his university education to at least be similar.

Kong has also shadowed doctors before. He spent some time with Jasper’s Dr. Stephen Slack during August, 2009 where he says he had an epiphany that his future was in the medical profession. Kong said he’d thought about medicine before, but actually seeing the hands-on work that a doctor does over the day convinced him the job was right for him. 

“The variations that you see, there are similarities, but you’re dealing with so many different conditions and then many different people so the variety, I like that,” said Kong.

Variety means a lot to Kong. Boarding school on the west coast with international friends, medical school in Europe; this small town boy is set to see a lot of the world very soon.

“It should be amazing,” he said.