You no doubt have a reason for joining HOSA and entering the world of health. We all do. For many, an experience from the past makes such an impression on them that they decide to commit their lives to healthcare. Others (including yours truly) initially discover health careers based on their academic skills & interests. As students become interested in these careers and begin to lay the groundwork for their health education, they learn more about what it means to be a health professional.

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Oklahoma HOSA State Leadership Conference. It was the first time I’ve been able to attend my home state’s SLC since 2013, so it was wonderful to reconnect with past state officers and see HOSA competition at the state level.

Up until now, this blog has mostly focused on my journey to becoming a physician. I know, however, that the world of health (and thus the interests of HOSA members) reaches far beyond patient care. To that end, I’m excited to begin branching out and interviewing extraordinary people who are impacting health and medicine through work in many different fields. I couldn’t think of a better person with which to begin this series.

Of all the topics about which I’ve written so far, none has been as dreaded as this. Students in middle and high school receive countless opinions on how they should decide what they want to do “when they grow up.” The stress of choosing a career path is substantial and many times overwhelming. I, too, have an opinion, and so I will share it with you today.

As promised earlier, here is my guide to soliciting letters of recommendation or evaluation. One of the most stressful parts of applying to a health career program is the requirement to obtain letters from professors, mentors, and supervisors. Programs may have basic requirements (for example, at least two letters) or very specific demands (two letters from professors of science, one letter from a medical doctor, and one letter from a volunteering supervisor). Often, the stress results from inadequate preparation and waiting too late to ask potential writers.

As a Future Health Professional, you’re no doubt aware of the importance of networking. Health careers can often seem like a small community; in even a large city you’ll find that you run into the same people over and over again. So getting to know key people and maintaining strong relationships with those who are in a position to help you can be incredibly rewarding. As a student, though, you may think that networking is the domain of current health professionals alone. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

As promised, here is part two of my four-part series on applying to medical school. In the first installment, I discussed crunching the raw numbers to find schools where you’ll be academically competitive, and we also covered some in-state/out-of-state stuff. Now, I’d like to talk about the next step, which is much more holistic. Admittedly, this part of the selection process cannot be complete until you’ve interviewed (which will be covered in part four of this series), but it is essential to narrow your list as much as possible before applying so as to save money.

I apologize for the long time between posts this time around – I’ve been very busy moving back to Oklahoma for my gap year, applying to medical school, and attending HOSA’s 40th Anniversary Celebration and 2016 International Leadership Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. It was wonderful seeing many of you in Nashville and I can’t wait for next year’s ILC in Orlando, Florida.
 

Some people love standardized tests. Their scale is impressive – everyone who takes a particular test is scaled against everyone else. This allows schools and employers to see at a glance how you’ve performed on these often content-based, but even more often critical thinking-based, assessments. Other people hate them, saying that they are the epitome of a system that over-tests and results in students who know how to regurgitate information but not how to apply it in day-to-day life or in a future career.

This past Friday, I completed a milestone – perhaps the milestone – in my slow, steady march toward medical school. Although I know that acceptance into a school is merely the start of an even longer journey than the one that I embarked on in 2012 when I entered NYU, I can’t help but see it as a kind of finish line. Maybe it’s a self-defense mechanism as I attempt to comprehend that my collegiate life is still less than half over. In any case, I’m nearly there.