Meeting Opportunity

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Health Professions held its annual career fair in which regional health care organizations and the school’s students discuss opportunities. For many students, the career fair serves as a starting point in making connections with employers for whom they may someday work. The career fair features opportunities in a variety of fields, including clinical laboratory sciences, speech, language and hearing sciences, physical therapy and occupational therapy.

“We were captivated by the various fields represented,” said Ace Vargas, clinical laboratory sciences student.

“Meeting vendors that serve all areas of the U.S. and internationally was interesting,” said Alexander Stewart, clinical laboratory sciences student. “I feel that I made beneficial connections.”

Many vendors at the career fair have been recognizing their organizations at the fair for years and say that they come to the fair each year in order to find talented new employees. They say TTUHSC has a strong reputation of graduating the very best providers.

Tim Layton, director of business development at Senior Rehab Solutions.

“We employ physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists. It’s great for us because we have clinical affiliation sites where we can take students on clinical rotations,” said Tim Layton, director of business development at Senior Rehab Solutions. “The fair is a great opportunity for them to learn more about us, and for us to learn more about them. It’s a good long interview. It helps us recruit and retain some of the very best physical, occupational and speech therapy students.”

Layton explained that Senior Rehab Solutions has had great success recruiting TTUHSC students and has even started taking opportunities to help students who may work for them one day.

“We’ve always had great students come to us from TTUHSC,” Layton said. “As a matter of fact, we actually fund scholarships, because we believe in the school so much and have seen such good quality of students from the programs that we wanted to give back.”

And, the connections made at the fair could prove very consequential, as the vendors said they attend to find candidates for specific positions within their institutions.

“We come to this job fair to fill positions in physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy,” said Joel Blanco, P.T., DPT, CSCS, inpatient rehab manager at United Regional Health Care System. “We have a good relationship with the school in doing student fieldwork. We get a lot of connections from students actually coming to our facility and doing rotations. That really helps with recruitment.”

Students like Desiree Ojo, clinical laboratory sciences student, said the job fair offered a perspective into the way various health professions fields interact in the workplace.

“The most interesting part was getting to see and meet other students in other programs in the School of Health Professions,” Ojo said. “It was really cool to learn about other health professions and how we all work together to achieve one common goal—patient care. As a senior about to graduate, it was a little sneak peek into the real world and my future as a health care professional.”

Linda Thomason, coordinator of human resources at Hendrick Medical Center, said it is important to their organization to make sure graduating health care students know about the wealth of opportunities available in nearby Abilene.

“We like to keep our name out there,” Thomason said. “We’ve done this fair for many years. We let them know we have free housing for students, and once they come, maybe they were reluctant at first, but then they end up loving it in Abilene.”

Kirk Canada, a practicing physical therapist at Hendrick Health System and graduate of the School of Health Professions said he’s happy he made the move to Abilene and always looks forward to working with more TTUHSC graduates.

“As a graduate of TTUHSC, I know we have fantastic programs here, Canada said. “We like to come and recruit these students because they do well when they get to Hendrick.”

Vargas agreed, saying he feels completely ready to take on his exciting new career when he graduates.

“I cannot see myself more prepared than as a TTUHSC graduate among these professional faculty and surrounded by such ambitious peers,” Vargas said. “The School of Health Professions strives to prepare students for the real world, and this job fair is another example of their dedication to our success.”