As part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is introducing 60 future healthcare professionals who are currently in their first year. Meet Melissa Malan.Melissa Malan believes successes are born from failures. "With the invention of the electric light bulb Thomas Edison said of his previous attempts: 'I haven’t failed, I just found 10 000 ways it doesn’t work’," she quotes the famous American inventor.It’s with this positive attitude that Malan, a first year MB,ChB student at the University of Stellenbosch, also tackles her studies. "The more you have to do, the more you get done," she says.Malan is an alumni of Bloemhof Hoër Meisieskool in Stellenbosch and earned seven distinctions last year as a matriculant. She has chosen to study towards a degree in medicine because she can’t think of any other career that would be more fulfilling. She believes that doctors have the ability to remedy physical illnesses as well as provide spiritual support.In ten years' time, Malan hopes to be happily married with a second child underway. But she never wants to get too set in her ways. When she’s 40, she would like to ask herself this: “Are you really happy or just really comfortable?"Did you know…

• Malan is a big YouTube fan. “First of all because it’s free. Secondly, I don’t know what I would do without music or Khan Academy!"
• She bites her nails during exam times.
• Her second dream job (apart from being a doctor) would be as a photographer for National Geographic.
• In her free time, she likes to make clothes.