News

“The community is my anchor”: an interview with Sarah Azam

The ICSMSU President on financial accessibility, medic drinking culture, and half-marathons in winter.

Guillaume Felix

16 Jan 2026 — 4 min read

Sarah entered the Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in 2020, and joined its Students’ Union (ICSMSU) in 2023 as Halfway Dinner Chair, before becoming Secretary and Communications Officer last year – a role in which she was looking after its newsletter and running its social media pages.

“I was very much in two minds as to whether I wanted to continue with my medicine degree,” Sarah remembers, “and one of the bigger factors that made me want to stay is pretty much the community we have, ICSM. I realised that’s really my anchor, and what keeps me going.”

This affinity with the medic community inspired Sarah to run for ICSMSU President in her 5^th year of studies: “I thought what would be best for me at the time is to take that year out, take that break from medicine, but still have that connection to the community.”

“A lot of medical schools don’t have the same sort of peer support that we do,” Sarah gathers from discussions with other medics, “so I think we’re very privileged to have what we have here.”

Sarah ran unopposed in 2025, building her campaign around four objectives: fostering a supportive community, championing the student voice, promoting global accessibility and encouraging collaboration within the Imperial College Union (ICU) and its Constituent Unions. I notice that Sarah’s manifesto is very thematic, by contrast with the ICU’s Officer Trustees who are usually elected on project-driven campaigns.

“I think that reflects the nature of the job,” Sarah explains. “I found very early on, when I started off as a sab, that the others had a lot more freedom with what they could do with the role, and I think there’s a lot more flexibility for them to make it their own, whereas with me, it’s a lot more structured. […] What I’ve gathered is that because the degree is so long […] what students really like to see is a sense of continuity and stability.”

I ask Sarah what she thinks are the main barriers to student integration. Financial accessibility is her “biggest focus”. She has been garnering support within the Faculty of Medicine to offer better financial assistance for medic placement travel, extending support to third years: “There are some students reporting that on some days they are deciding whether to have a meal or to go to placement,” she recalls from a predecessor’s report.

She also identifies the need to bring down cultural barriers – an ever-relevant issue, especially given the recent rise in international students. But ICSMSU must also adapt to behavioural changes. “Students are drinking less, and we’re finding that with events, we need to be a bit more mindful of how we advertise them,” she notes. “I think as a whole, people are a lot more open and welcoming to non-drinkers, but you can’t ignore that there is always going to be, to an extent, quite a heavy drinking culture for those who wish to have that.”

Sarah and her team are working on the “ICSM Club Culture Review”, which will take the form of a set of interviews with ICSM club committee members, exploring topics such as drinking culture, relationships, and even family dynamics. The aim: identify “barriers that prevent people from feeling like they belong, or any reason why they do feel like they belong.”

In my early days as Felix Editor, I was clued into the long-standing ties between the ICSMSU presidency and ICSM Light Opera leadership by an insider. Sarah, who was the society's Main Show Producer for two years, laughs: “I think maybe every other President has been a member of Light Opera. I don’t really know what that says about the role or about that society – I think we’re just very passionate about the people around us, and I reckon that just carries through year on year.” (Note to medic Felix readers with burning ambition: work on your falsetto.)

This term, aside from preparing for a half-marathon during a very wet January (“it’s really horrible and it gets dark so soon – I don’t know what possessed me”), Sarah is trialling weekly drop-ins for students to engage with ICSMSU officers. “Students are definitely experiencing survey fatigue,” she assesses, “something that I’m trying to have a better grasp at is figuring out how to collect data and feedback from students that isn’t via a form.”

Besides her pet projects, Sarah believes her main mission is to “support the rest of the student officers,” likening her office to an “extra bridge” between ICSMSU student volunteers and “higher boards and forums”.

“Some people say that my role is probably the most isolating. I would argue that, yes, maybe on the day-to-day it is, but because my job is so student-facing, a lot of my work is very much dependent on what the student body and what the student union want to do.”

Sarah leaves the Felix office and heads out for a meeting with the ICSMSU Gazette, telling me it’s a very busy day. A lesson for aspiring leaders: the key to success is hard work and good media relations.