2023 School of Pharmacy Career and IPPE/APPE Fair - Connections to the Future

The School of Pharmacy organized a large 2-day Career Fair and IPPE/APPE Fair during October 26th and 27th. The event this year was special for many reasons:

• First, after years of pandemic and post pandemic recovery, we were able to host a large in-person event on Friday, October 27th in the beautiful Wingspan Event and Conference Center in Hillsboro, OR.

• Second, this year we approached the 2-day event with a new innovative design!  By having the 1st day as a virtual event and the 2nd day in- person, the School of Pharmacy was able to provide connections and different opportunities for all of our PharmD students, not just the graduating class, as well as some alumni!

• Third, the generosity of our sponsors enabled us to create a robust and interactive in-person event. Special thank you to sponsors of this year’s event: CVS Health, Walgreens, and Rite Aid as Platinum-level, Walmart as Gold-level, and Fred Meyer as Silver-level sponsors. We would not have been able to generate such an amazing event without them and their support!

Overall, the location and programming were a great opportunity to come together and offer networking with different pharmacy employers, health systems and community practice sites.  This event also gave an opportunity to explore potential residency/fellowship for our students related to job opportunities, other types of residency and fellowship options, as well as the ability to learn more about the types of pharmacy practice and opportunities for IPPE and APPE rotations.

On Wednesday, October 25th, our 2024 Cohort had the opportunity to take a break from APPEs and focus on some career development workshops.

• Maria Alvarez provided some tips on how to think about finances when looking at job opportunities and potential benefits.

• Faculty provided a session to help P3 students polish their CVs and give an overview of expectations of what to expect over the next couple of days.

• Finally, students sought small group feedback on elevator pitches, final CV touch-ups and jump starting the LOI/cover letter process

Summary of Day 1

Day 1 of our Career Fair was our virtual event which allowed participation from alumni and APPE students who may not be local, as well as give health care organizations who may not be able to make our in-person event, a chance to connect with each other. We held two hour sessions in the morning and afternoon to accommodate a total of 24 health care organizations.  Our P1 and P2 students were even able to pop into the virtual event during breaks in their classes!

Summary of Day 2

Day 2 was the cornerstone event of Career Week, our in-person Career Fair! We had a total of 26 exhibitors representing various health care organizations, in addition to panel presentations from our platinum sponsors (CVS Health, Rite Aid, Walgreens).  Students also had the opportunity to participate in roundtable discussions with:

• Inpatient health care organizations offering IPPE/APPE experiences (targeting P1/P2 students).

  • Thank you to Santiam Hospital and Clinics, Salem Health, Sky Lakes Medical Center, Legacy Health, and Kadlec Regional Medical Center.

• Alumni roundtables where our recent alumni shared their stories with our current students, about their individual pathways to their current roles, and where they may be headed in the future.

  • Thank you to Edwin Sherwood, Greg Battles, Megan Gadda, Arika Sandbach, Lisa
    White, Emily Grey, Kenneth Garcia, Ismael Aguirre, Aron Beguli!.

• Community health centers and organizations focused on rural health closed out our last round table of the afternoon.  This allowed students to learn more about what pharmacy practice looks like in institutions serving rural/underserved communities.

  • Thank you to Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, Klamath Tribal Health
    Pharmacy, Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, Rogue Community Health Center,
    Sky Lakes Medical Center, Special Olympics International!