Students can explore options at annual health professions fair

By Staff Reports

Students who are interested in exploring and comparing health-related professional schools can go on a scouting trip of institutions from eight states and two Caribbean nations — and they can do it all in one afternoon, under one roof, at East Tennessee State University.

The third annual Health Professions Recruitment Fair, sponsored by the ETSU Office of Medical Professions Advisement (MPA), will be held Wednesday, Oct. 17, in the D.P. Culp University Center ballroom. Representatives from more than 40 professional schools will be on hand from 1-4 p.m. Admission is free.

The event is geared toward undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students. Approximately 550 students from ETSU and other schools in East Tennessee as well as North Carolina and Virginia attended the first two recruitment fairs, said Martha Edde, ETSU coordinator of MPA.

“This is a great opportunity for students to have that initial conversation with the schools they are interested in,” Edde said. “A lot of our students at ETSU are very focused on this region and they haven’t thought about applying to some of the places that are a little farther away. So the recruitment fair certainly opens their eyes to more of the choices they have.”

The choices are indeed many. The health-related areas that will be represented at the fair include allopathic, osteopathic and chiropractic medicine; clinical and rehabilitative health sciences; dentistry; international service learning; nursing; occupational therapy; optometry; pharmacy; physical therapy; physician assistant; podiatry; psychology; public health; social work; and veterinary medicine. Information on international study and health-related careers in the U.S. Army will also be available.

All five of the colleges in the Academic Health Sciences Center at ETSU — the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences, the James H. Quillen College of Medicine, the College of Nursing and the College of Public Health — will participate.

Schools and programs from the Southeast — as well as from Pennsylvania and the Caribbean island nations of St. Maarten and Grenada — will travel to ETSU to meet with students. School representatives at the recruitment fair can offer advice on prerequisite classes and the value of job shadowing.

After the informational booths close at 4 p.m., students may attend a question-and-answer session from 4:30-6 p.m. that focuses on allopathic and osteopathic medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, optometry and pharmacy. Current students from the Quillen College of Medicine, the Gatton College of Pharmacy and the DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harrogate will answer questions about their experiences.