Hannah Heyl is excited to graduate from ULM’s medical laboratory science program next spring. However, she knows to get a job after college she needs to start making connections while still in school, and the perfect opportunity to do so showed itself at the Health Sciences Career Fair last Tuesday.
At the event, Heyl met a ULM alumna who majored in the same field as her. Now, the alumna works for a well-known healthcare provider, Willis-Knighton Health System, which has multiple facilities in Northwest Louisiana.
It was inspiring for Heyl to see someone start out in the same place she did and then become successful.
“It was nice to see an alumna passionate about her field,” Heyl said.
But Heyl wasn’t the only one making strides toward her goals at the event. Looking around Bayou Pointe that afternoon, the future of medicine could be seen seeking out potential employers from all over the United States.
Thomas Adam, on the other hand, decided to stick with an option a little closer to home.
He met with workers from Merit Health, the hospital in his hometown, to discuss the possibility of a future career there. He also setup a tour of their laboratory and scheduled to visit it during this semester’s fall break.
“It was a great opportunity to network with prospective employers and even other students. You can potentially find a career path you never considered,” said Adam, a senior medical laboratory science major.
To attend, students were required to wear business casual or business professional attire. Many students opted for wearing their scrubs with their lab coats and name tags. They were also encouraged to bring multiple copies of their resumes and to fill out a Handshake profile. Handshake is an app created by ULM Career Center to help students on their journey to finding internships and jobs.
Representatives from 14 different hospitals and other medical facilities worked this event. They were looking for students interested in professional positions.
A few of the companies the representatives came from are: the FBI, Vantage Health Plan, VCOM-Louisiana, Oschner Health System and Synergy Care, Inc.