On September 19, Long Beach City College welcomed current and high school students to an introductory panel for the 2019 Health Career Summit where aspiring medical students spoke with representatives for schools such as UC Davis and Western University.
The summit’s panel was held at LAC in room T-1100 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and was followed by a small gathering in a room across the hall where the audience met with advocates for various medical programs, schools and talked to members who spoke at the panel.
Marcia Parker, senior director at LBCC, organized the event.
“This is something that’s really important to me because I didn’t have a lot of career role models for myself growing up and so I always said if I ever got the opportunity to do that for someone else and to provide role models for others, I was gonna do so,” Parker explained.
The panel introduced Nataley Morua, a pre-health student who shared her experience in the audience in LBCC’s 2018 Health Career Summit.
Throughout the summit, Morua was able to meet and be mentored by pediatrician and 2018 panel member Dr. Nathalie Fernando.
During her journey as a pre-health student, Morua joined 9-week summer program, partnered with CSULB, Bridges to Baccalaureate.
The program allows its members to join a lab during the 9 weeks and conduct research in the lab.
“…At the end of the 9 weeks, there’s this really fun poster presentation, where you along with everyone else in the program get to show the research that was conducted that summer. It’s honestly just a really fun experience where knowledge is shared,” Morua told the audience.
The panel featured various members of the medical practice from pharmaceutical work to biochemistry, and even veterinary ophthalmology.
Each panel member shared experiences as medical students, the diversity of professions and specializations in the medical industry while sharing some of what to expect when diving into the world of medicine.
Dr. Ricky R. Norwood, a family nurse practitioner, talked about his past regarding the U.S. military before starting off as a nurse and building his career.
“That’s how I became a military officer, by going to nursing school and after I finished nursing school, I got a direct admission to the army and I became a nurse,” Dr. Norwood told the audience.
“And I became a real good nurse because my grandmother told me that I was gonna be a nurse. Because when I went back home from vacation in the army and I said, ‘Hey grandma, I’m gonna be a nurse,’ she said ‘And you’ll be a good one too’,” Norwood said.
The panel concluded with LBCC counselor Ruben Page explaining to the audience the importance of staying on academic track and transferring students to their ideal college.
Joseph Nguyen, a second year pharmacy student from the Keck Graduate Institute School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, advocated for the KGI booth during the post-panel gathering.
Nguyen talked about his experience as a pharmacy student and the difficulties of gaining work experience in the medical field.
“Do the best you can to get your foot in the door. By that I just mean, get some type of work experience specific to the medical industry that you want to be apart of. So for me, I became a pharmacy technician because I wanted to go to pharmacy school. I know that some of these jobs do require a lot of experience in general. It’s hard to find a job, I’m gonna be honest with that. Becoming a pharmacy tech, I applied to like twenty different places before I got like one single interview and thank god that interview was the actual job I got,” Ngyuen said.
“Never give up but try to get that experience, but in all honesty, it’s okay if you don’t as long as these admissions chairs see that you’re trying. I see a lot of my classmates, they weren’t pharmacy techs, but they took initiative, they were proactive and they got their pharmacy tech license,” Ngyuen explained.
The 2019 Health Career Summit panel, organized by Marcia Parker, was made with the intention to encourage and help aspiring medical students on their path to success.
The panel provided an abundance of information about certain medical professions and programs.
There is an app titled MiMentor that connects medical practitioners to students who seek mentorship.
It is not said whether or not there will be a 2020 Health Career Summit.
Dr. Norwood added, “Don’t give up. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. The only failure is not getting up. As long as you get up, that means you’re moving, okay? You can’t go through something if you don’t keep moving.”