Written by Ekta Singh and Kellie Daniel, Program Coordinators and Professors, Health Care Administration
The first annual Health Care Administration (HCA) Career Networking Fair for HCA students was held in May, a result of collaboration between HCA Program Coordinators, SLC Career Services, and KEYS Kingston. The event featured a keynote speaker session with Dr. Tarek Hussein, local pharmacist and owner of Weller Pharmacy, entrepreneur, community leader, and advocate. Dr. Hussein encouraged HCA students to take risks and shared his story of coming to Canada from Egypt, the various struggles he faced, and how he overcame them with a focus on embracing change and culture.
Additionally, this event brought together 24 local health care employers and 85+ internationally educated health care professionals in the HCA program for the purpose of creating an opportunity for students to network and mingle with top health care employers. It was also an opportunity for health care employers in our community to learn more about the unique skills, qualifications, and talent of SLC’s internationally educated health care students. Students in our program have continuously shared because they do not have Canadian work experience, they are often passed up for health care jobs, even though the health care sector is in dire need of skilled professionals. This event helped shine a light on the amazing talent in our program and created an opportunity to get their foot in the health care door.
The event took place in the SLC event space and the room was buzzing with excitement and great conversations.
Attendee feedback:
“I had no idea about this amazing talent pool in our community, it was so great to make these connections.”
“As students, we have asked for so long to have more opportunities to meet face to face with employers in a safe and comfortable setting, this event was fantastic and made us feel so cared for!”
We look forward to finding ways to build upon this event and make it an annual component of our HCA programming!