On Monday, Feb. 17, students interested in becoming doctors or other health professionals will be given the opportunity to explore these careers during an informative and interactive career fair, Path to Health Professions Day, in the Student Union. High school students and Wright State undergraduate and graduate students are invited to participate.
Path to Health Professions Day includes informal sessions where students can listen to speakers on various careers and topics such as osteopathic medicine, professional psychology, financial aid, and more. Speakers include clinicians as well as medical students from the Boonshoft School of Medicine who will host a “Q & A” session. Admission representatives from various Ohio professional programs and representatives from test prep companies and army programs will also be present. Attendees can also take tours of the medical school’s anatomy labs.
Prospective students can learn more about WSU, and current students can learn more about the careers they are interested in and the preparations needed in order to be accepted to professional schools and programs. However, when first organized, this event was for only high school students interested in medical school. Director of the Pre-Health program Jacqui Neal, who will be opening the event, described how the event has changed over the years.
“As our student population grew and the 'pre-med’ program expanded to include many more health professions, our event continued to grow and expand,” said Neal. “Because of all the changes in the educational requirements for many of these, it was important to not only recruit students to WSU, but to also provide them with updated information. And this information was important for our current students as well, so we invited them to attend.”
Another opportunity this career fair offers is allowing students to network and build relationships with admissions representatives. Hannah Vollmer, president of the Pre-Medical Society, whose members help out during the event, discussed how this day has helped her.
“Last year I was able to meet an admissions officer from the optometry school at Ohio State University," said Vollmer. "We got to sit down and have lunch together and it was a great opportunity for me to talk to him one on one and ask all of the questions I had. This will also help me when I apply in the future because he will hopefully be able to put a face to my name.”
