ISU Bengal

Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: Life

An above average attendance to the fair surprised the Career Center and the Pre Health Advisory committee. Over 200 students and some local Pocatellans took advantage of the fair to learn about possible careers and colleges that could start them on a successful career path.
The event has been running for several years but it has only been running annually for the last three years. Last year's event had 175 participants, quite a growth to this year's attendance at more than 300.
The event was held at the Pond Student Union Building Ballroom and had 53 booths. Booths consisted of graduate medical colleges ranging in podiatry to natural medicine. And also consisted of Northwestern hospitals and health organizations hoping to get some fresh graduates of ISU to consider employment at their agencies.
"(It's) a lot of information that you can't get anywhere else" said Colton Bybee, an ISU freshman. Bybee plans to graduate with a health professions degree but hasn't quite figured out which field is best. The fair was a great way for him to know what degrees and careers are out there.
But students weren't the only ones getting a benefit from the fair. Boise staffing agency MSN Medical Staffing came to hire new graduates that would like a temporary, contractual or travel experience within their field.
"There's a lot of opportunities especially for nurses and therapists" said Leo Sigrist, an employee for MSN Staffing.
Top graduate colleges came from all around the United States to incite interest into attending their doctorate programs, universities like Creighton University of Nebraska. Stephanie Jackson, the university's representative, drove through many hours of corn fields to showcase its School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. She managed the booth and then gave an informational presentation later that day to interested students. This was the first year ISU invited universities to the event but "we were here last year" said Jackson.
"(I came) to know more about med schools. I think it was very helpful" said Tereza Prihodova an ISU junior. Prihodova has attendant all three years at ISU to double major in psychology and pre-medicine. The fair gave her the information she needed to narrow down her choices on graduate schools.
The fair also gave alternatives to students who don't want to wait to get into ISU's competitive health programs, such as Blake Gilbert a senior in Pre-Pharmacy," (people come) to see what else is out there just in case they don't get accepted at ISU." Gilbert knows ISU's pharmacy program is very competitive and used the fair to apply to graduate schools, "its good to apply to two or three (universities) just in case," he said.
The fair gave out 200 information packets and will plan to make more for next year. Students who missed the fair may contact the ISU Career center or Pre Health Advisory Committee to get supplementary information.

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