Inaugural Health Professions Expo to be held Feb. 28

On Feb. 28, the inaugural Health Professions Expo will be held at the Alumni Hall in the HUB-Robeson Center on Penn State’s University Park campus. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Organized by the Prehealth Advising office in the Penn State Eberly College of Science, this event will provide the opportunity to connect health-care professionals and organizations with prospective students. 
 
Co-organizers Kimberly Johnson and Marc Counterman named timing as their most important motivator in starting this event. A career fair was held in the fall for prehealth students, but Johnson explained that health professions programs are in the thick of the admissions process during the fall, giving them less time to focus on perspective students. Setting the expo closer to the time that students are applying for schools and programs, she said, should make for a more successful event. 
 
“Having the expo in February will allow students to better understand what to look for during the event,” Counterman added. 
 
As students prepare to apply to medical schools in the upcoming application cycle, they will get a better sense of their options and interests by interacting with different programs at the expo. In addition, students will get the chance to be put on the radar of schools they will soon be applying to. 
 
The expo is open to anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in health care, including students and faculty from other Penn State campuses and other universities. Attendees will get the chance to connect with representatives in medicine, podiatry, dentistry, pharmacy, and other related health professions. Having a specific expo for health professions gives prospective students more of an opportunity to make an impact while exploring as many options as possible. 
 
No registration is required for those interested in attending; however, some preparation is recommended before the event. The Prehealth Advising office provides tips for how to be successful at the expo. Some of these tips include conversation ideas and dress code. It is also recommended to take some time to look into the programs attending in order to learn more about the company or school. 
 
More information on the Health Professions Expo, tips on how to be successful, and a list of attending programs are available on the Eberly College of Science website.