Glen A. Wilson’s Future Health Professionals (HOSA) team explored future career opportunities in the healthcare industry during a field trip hosted at Marshall B. Ketchum University on Aug. 20.
A group of 20 HOSA members gained hands-on experience while visiting three medical schools within the university. Activities included utilizing food-grade materials to make pills, exploring virtual reality in the Optometry school and visiting the Pharmacist lab where students worked with an anatomage table.
According to junior Eric Zhu, part of the day’s thrill was “experiencing the activities of different medical careers.”
“I am still trying to find my career, and HOSA is a good opportunity to help me find the career that I want,” said Zhu.
HOSA was founded during the distance learning COVID-19 year, thus this was their first field trip as a team. Senior Sarah Axelrod believes that the trip was very timely for some students like Zhu; however, she would have “preferred for the field trip to have been done earlier.”
“I wish I could have learned more about these careers earlier on,” said Axelrod. “However, in Biomed, we learn about different professions similar to those we saw during the trip, so this trip allowed me to expand my knowledge.”
She added that engaging in hands-on activities with medical assistants allowed her to “explore other possible health care careers” and “keep more of an open mind about how the healthcare system already works.”
This is HOSA’s second tour of the university, HOSA Advisor and Biomedical Sciences teacher Mr. Han explained. According to Han, the most important takeaway from this trip is whether students are able to “imagine themselves doing these activities on a day-to-day basis.” Due to the success of this trip, HOSA plans to continue organizing similar activities.
“When we get a new cohort of [HOSA] members, we plan to do these trips every year and add in new events for upperclassmen members,” said Han.
HOSA is currently planning future field trips, one of which allows HOSA members to explore a nursing school at Azusa Pacific University.
