Alumni and students connect at life sciences career fair

By Daing Nasir
Western Herald

(David Roush / Western Herald) Emily Yonker, a 2003 WMU graduate, describes her experiences, as a Certified Physicians Assistant in the field of Neurosurgery at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo.She was a speaker at the Biomedical Career fair Wednesday afternoon in the Bernhard Center.

Students from the sciences were greeted by alumni speakers on Wednesday from various fields in an event to promote careers in the life sciences industry.
Co-sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Chemistry, “Strategies for Success” aimed at showcasing successful alumnus to students. The alumnus were there to show and tell their personal experiences in their field and tell students what they need to do to get where they are in their respective fields.

Speaker Krystal DeClerck, third year dentistry student at the University of Detroit Mercy, gave a speech on her personal experiences at WMU and her struggles through her program, which indeed has helped her to be where she is right now.

“The studying is definitely all worth it,” DeClerck said. “Be very persistent in what you are doing. If you want something just go for it until you ultimately reach your goal.”

The biomedical sciences program here at WMU gave DeClerck the curricular knowledge she needed to go into dentistry. Apart from studying the relevant courses needed to get into pre-dentistry, she also gave a deeper conversation on the relevant internship or work-related jobs that might be relevant to what students might want to do in the future.

“Working as an assistant in a dental office helped me geared up to fully understand what I was going into,” DeClerck said. “Only then you will know and learn to appreciate what you might be learning in the future in some instances may come in a form of advantage towards you because you would have learned the instruments and apparatus in a dental office.”

Fourth year pharmacy student at Ferris State University and also WMU alumni, Michele Galloway also graduated with a biomedical sciences degree. She also gave an introduction to students on her career path so far into being a pharmacist.

“Perseverance is key,” Galloway said. “Persevere in what you want to do and make sure that you know that what you are doing is indeed for your own self.”

Galloway shared her experiences as an undergraduate student in Kalamazoo and on being a pharmacy technician with local vendors. She stated that it has helped her fully understand what she wanted to do with her educational and career goals.

“Having worked as a pharmacy technician made me re-direct my career goals from going to medical school and going into pharmacy instead to do what I was really interested in,” Galloway said.  “Start your study habits early in your undergraduate studies if you know what you want to pursue in order to get used to any doctoral courses that you may encounter in graduate school.”

Physician assistant at the Neurologic Services with Bronson, Emily Yonker, gave a different view on medical careers to the audience. Her background in having been a music major at WMU concurred with the other two guests because she knew what she wanted to do only after having met a real physician assistant.
Yonker’s advice to students would be that after you have talked to a real life PA, only then will students grasp the whole idea of the career path in detail. Those details might entail having to make physical examinations, diagnose and treat diseases, order and interpret tests, counsel patients on preventive medicine and also assist in surgery.

“My observation from the questions I get from students that want to pursue the physician assistantship program under the Master of Science in Medicine here at WMU is the 1,000 direct patient care hours and also their GPA,” she said. “You have to know what you want to do and what a physician assistant does; only then you will be serious in pursuing a credible career out of your own choice.”

“I had many interest whilst I was an undergrad and I didn’t let my non-traditional path of being a music major get in the way of what I wanted to do,” Yonker added.

David Huffman, Ph.D. from the chemistry department said that the event was successful in its efforts to get students of the sciences prepared for what they need to know to get them motivated.
Huffman said the career fair is in support of the breadth of the sciences.
That scientists are essential today in the world of hi-tech and what goes on around you is indeed, ultimately all science.

“I set up AskTheExpertsPhD.com to expand many career possibilities for students to get the advice that they need from the professionals themselves,” Huffman said. “The Web site is set to network people, experts in the sciences and academicians alike, [and] to help students get ahead in their studies by advising them what they need to do to achieve their career goals.”

Chemistry major Brianna Hyder said “the event was very informational with heart-warming stories.”

“The speakers indeed gave a real worldview of possible career paths and shows you that nothing is impossible unless you really want it regardless of the hurdles that you may encounter,” Hyder said. “I felt good that they had concentrated on the point that if you picked the right major that you wanted to venture into and incorporate that with all your extracurricular experiences, possibilities are ultimately endless.”

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Feb 26 2009. Filed under Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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