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National Pre-Health Conference: Inspiring the Next Generation of Healthcare Professionals

Description

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-health individuals around the world encountered a range of challenges. Research and internship opportunities were cancelled, clinical experience was unreachable, and prerequisites became more demanding in a remote setting. I myself was working in a research lab in Switzerland when the pandemic was declared, resulting in my career-altering internship to be cut short six months. My life-long friend, Alejandra, had the same experience and reached out to me with an extraordinary idea to unite and empower pre-health individuals on a national level. With my skills in event planning combined with her vision, we built the National Pre-Health Conference (NPHC): a 3-day virtual event for pre-health individuals to explore medical careers and learn how to pursue their professional goals, particularly during these uncertain times. We held our inaugural conference with the theme A Future in Medicine in 2020 with over 1000 attendees from around the country. In 2021, we held our second-annual conference with the theme Unity in Healthcare with over 1000 attendees as well. In addition to planning the second-annual NPHC, I employed pre-event and post-event surveys to assess the confidence level of attendees before and after the conference in healthcare experience, research experience, standardized testing, community service, academics, essay writing, and completing graduate/professionals school applications. We found that NPHC improved the confidence level of attendees in all categories. Overall, understanding how NPHC benefits pre-health students will help our team improve for future conferences.

ContributorsChildress, Alexia (Author) / Compton, Carolyn (Thesis director) / Lynch, John (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)

Created2021-12

The Importance of Pre-Health Student-Faculty Relationships in Facilitating Effective Learning

Description

The relationship between students and faculty members is central to their academic success and development in undergraduate programs, especially those who are from underprivileged and underrepresented communities. Although there are numerous studies that delve into the nuances of how these interactions benefit students, much less has been researched about the professor’s perspective on how their teaching modality affects their students’ performance in and out of the classroom environment. Some of the main foci of this study are to uncover what pre-health professors recommend for their students in creating stronger relationships with faculty members, approaching difficult classes, and preparing themselves for postgraduate degrees. Based on in-depth interviews with 13 senior and junior professors at Arizona State University, we find various similarities and differences in their teaching approach according to rank, gender, discipline, and campus location. Overall, our qualitative findings emphasize the significance of undergraduate pre-health students reaching out to create connections with faculty members by going to office hours and starting research early to make the most of their college education.

ContributorsWang, Deven (Author) / Goodson, Constantinos (Co-author) / Gaughan, Monica (Thesis director) / Pham, Victoria (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)

Created2024-05