Making Connections: Students and Employers Mingle at Annual Job Fair

Within minutes opening, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Allied Health Sciences job fair was bustling with excited allied health students, faculty and administrators, as well as prominent health care employers from across the state. For many graduating allied health students, the event was a coveted opportunity to meet face-to-face with potential employers in allied health care fields such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, clinical laboratory science and audiology.

More than 30 vendors turned out to pitch career paths to newly minted allied health professionals. The impressive vendor turnout is indicative of the climate in allied health care, a field in which there are reportedly more jobs than there are qualified health care providers. Allied health is a rapidly growing group of fields with more than 5 million working professionals and more than 200 distinct careers in the U.S.

TTUHSC School of Allied Health Sciences has led the way in creating qualified allied health care providers since graduating its first class of 18 students in 1983. Since then, the school’s accomplishments have included creating the first Doctor of Audiology program located west of the Mississippi and the first Master of Science in Molecular Pathology program in the nation. The school graduated more than 400 students from its nineteen programs in 2014. Health care institutions like TrustPoint Hospital, a 71-bed, premier rehabilitation facility in Lubbock, recognize the talent stemming from the school and attend the annual job fair to find new employees.

“We’ve actually been coming to this job fair since our hospital opened in 2008, so I guess this would be our sixth consecutive year coming,” said Seth Torres with TrustPoint Hospital. “We’ve had a lot of success hiring PT, OT and speech (TTUHSC) graduates into our hospital. I think if you actually look at our occupational therapy department, over 80 percent of our occupational therapists have come out of the Texas Tech program. So, we’ve had a phenomenal amount of success and some of those contacts came out of this job fair.”

The high demand for graduates in her field is great news for Samantha Leach, a second-year occupational therapy student.

“It’s a huge benefit to get your name in and get an email to even contact up to a year after we graduate,” Leach said. While Leach wants to move back to her home state of Colorado, the job fair still helped her make connections with some institutions that have branches near her hometown.

“There are some places that expand outward and I made connections with those companies,” Leach said.
Wherever she goes, Leach will certainly find plenty to do in the growing, diverse field of occupational therapy.

“In occupational (therapy), there is huge variety from NICU with babies all the way to working with geriatrics and I think that’s really fun,” Leach said.

Many students said they were drawn to the school because they sought a varied and “hands-on” curriculum that allowed them to work with seasoned allied health professionals extensively before graduation. Health care institutions like TrustPoint pursue opportunities to educate and possibly recruit allied health students.

“We intentionally try to be a part of the curriculum,” said Torres. “We have many clinicians who help (the students) do their fieldwork to establish us as a fieldwork site. We also do a lot of guest lectures.”

Students in other allied health fields made valuable connections, as well.

“One of the vendors here is where I’m going to be doing my preceptorship,” said Aaron Solis, a senior clinical laboratory sciences student from Amarillo. “I also found another in Fort Worth, which is where I plan to move after I get some experience under my belt.”

Solis’ time in the clinical laboratory sciences program at the TTUHSC School of Allied Health Sciences has helped him understand exactly what kind of career experience he wants.

“At first, I wanted to be a medical student, but then I found out about clinical laboratory science,” Solis explained. “I thought it was interesting that I could work in the lab and actually run the tests to diagnose patients.”

Solis said the best part about a career in clinical laboratory science is the flexibility and pride on the job.

“I’ll have time to spend with my family and help my community,” Solis said.

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