PRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM S. KJELSON
Students and businesses interested in attending or sponsoring the event can register online at https://pharmacy.nova.edu/futures/index.html.
On Nov. 12, NSU’s College of Pharmacy will be hosting a Futures Summit at 6:00 pm at the Rick Case Arena in the Don Taft University Center. The goal of the event is to encourage networking in the health care profession between companies and potential candidates at NSU. The College of Pharmacy, Allopathic Medicine, Nursing and Business have teamed up to make this event possible. The summit is an opportunity for businesses to not only connect with faculty and other businesses, but an opportunity for students to meet executive personnel from various companies.
“The goal is to really engage these companies with all of our ideal candidates. [It’s] an opportunity for our university to attract new potential candidates to these multiple programs by showing them the magnitude of our network and the contact we have when it comes to job creation and opportunities,” said Dr. Scott Kjelson, director of student transitions and assistant professor of the College of Pharmacy.
The event will include a healthcare panel regarding the future of healthcare such as the former senior advisor to the secretary of the United States Department of Health & Human Services and the president of the American Pharmacists Association. The event will also include a company showcase where partners of the summit will present what is currently happening in healthcare.
“One of the biggest goals of this is to start connecting people on an interprofessional level so by the time people get out there, they are not searching for contacts in terms of students, and when it comes to the businesses out there, they are starting to look at our candidates first.” said Dr. Kjelson
The event is aimed toward a multitude of students with varying majors. According to Dr. Kjelson, any student looking for a job in healthcare, technology, business or marketing can benefit from the event. The networking within the event is aimed to help students get into contact with vital informants within their desired professions.
“Direct contacts to both the people hiring in companies as well as people shining in these companies, so the people at head levels at these companies, so it’s not just HR people that are coming but actually top contacts within those industries or companies themselves that are going to be showing up to this,” said Dr Kjelson. “In terms of the students, the ability to meet these high demand contacts [and] network [is] an opportunity at a glimpse of the multiple professions being exposed.”
Emanual Escabar, third-year pharmacy student at the College of Pharmacy in the Dual Enrollment program for business administration, claimed it “brought me an immense amount of benefits, not only career-wise but networking. The amount of professions I was able to see, the amount of professionals that were there, the healthcare systems, all the opportunities that were in one place is something you would normally see at a big annual conference. But, it’s housed right here at NSU.”
