By Maegan Murray, WSU��Tri‑Cities

RICHLAND, Wash. – In light of the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order by Gov. Jay Inslee, as well as K-12 schools not returning to in-person learning throughout the state, Washington State University Tri-Cities launched a new website dedicated to educational children’s activities and a new reading program where kids virtually read along with ���سԹ� faculty and can earn WSU prizes.

�ճ����website��features a variety of do-it-at-home activities ranging from those that pertain to WSU and Coug spirit, such as creating your own Butch T. Cougar mask, to science experiments and other fun activities using supplies that most families likely already have and use in their home.

Additionally, through the new “Super Coug Readers” program in partnership with The Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia, children can watch videos of ���سԹ� faculty reading their favorite books. Children can also earn prizes for completing a Super Coug Readers reading calendar and/or completing a “Super Coug Readers Bingo” challenge.

The project is being led by the ���سԹ� community engagement team in partnership with the ���سԹ� College of Education and The Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia.

“As a public university, we saw an opportunity to provide children and their families with fun and educational activities that are safe and readily available to complete in their own homes, especially during this unusual time,” said Jaime Heppler, ���سԹ� executive director of advancement and community engagement. “Many parents, such as myself, are looking for engaging activities for their kids. This new website and reading program provide activities that foster learning and curiosity. We are excited to offer this as a resource for our regional families.”

Benefits of reading aloud with your kids

Elizabeth Barnes, executive director of The Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia, said children who read for at least 20 minutes per day score in the 90^th��percentile in standardized tests, are successful in school, are more likely to graduate from college and become successful in life.

“The skills and knowledge you gain from reading or being read to from birth are astronomical,” she said. “This is a very natural partnership for The Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia and ���سԹ�, as both organizations are trying to better the community through education.”

Barnes said children reading along with ���سԹ� faculty presents a great way for children to be exposed to different educational opportunities and careers that are available in the regional Tri-Cities community.

“What kind of impact could an engineering professor have on a young girl and her parents if they were to hear ‘Rosie Revere, Engineer,’ for the first time?” she said. “What kind of connections to the real world could this have on a family that may never have contemplated a life for their daughter in the sciences?”

Reading with industry experts – ���سԹ� faculty

Sara Sorensen Petersen, a ���سԹ� clinical assistant professor of education and board member with the Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia, said she and her fellow faculty members are excited to provide educational opportunities for regional students to learn from faculty members in a range of fields and from a range of backgrounds and cultures.

“Speaking as a mom and an educator, it is great for kids to see others than mom and dad reading, as well as see professionals in their communities and learn a bit more about what they do,” she said. “We have female science professors, for example, that could inspire young girls to think about a career in the sciences. It’s just a great tie-in and presents a great opportunity for our local families.”

A free resource for families

The new Cougar Family Fun website��is available for free and accessible to the public.

Additionally, The Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia is supplying ���سԹ� with an assortment of children’s books that will be given out at the ���سԹ� Cougar Cupboard sponsored by Lamb Weston food pantry, in addition to food pick-up locations in Pasco and Kennewick for ���سԹ� students and their families.����on pick-up locations and how to donate can be found online.

 

Media Contacts:

Jaime Heppler, ���سԹ� executive director of advancement and community engagement, 509-372-7207, jaime.heppler@wsu.edu

Sara Sorensen Petersen, ���سԹ� clinical assistant professor of education, 509-372-7395, sarapetersen@wsu.edu

Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� public relations/communication coordinator, 509-372-7333, maegan_murray@wsu.edu

SPOKANE, Wash.– The Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine recently announced the launch of Range Health, a non-profit academic health network designed to bring health care to Washington’s rural and underserved areas. The College of Medicine also unveiled the William A. Crosetto Mobile Health Care Unit, the network’s first traveling health clinic.

Named for its intent to deliver care to all of Washington’s 39 counties with a nod to its rural emphasis, Range Health is a separate 501(c)(3) entity in partnership with WSU and the College of Medicine. The organization will provide prevention and wellness strategies, as well as treatment to patients across the state, focusing on communities where health care is limited. Leveraging its network of doctors, nurses and pharmacists, Range Health will increase access to health care while serving as a training ground for future doctors and health care providers.

“From the earliest days of the College of Medicine, we envisioned a time when we would not only educate medical students to become doctors in our rural and underserved communities but create new ways of delivering health care to the people of our state,” said John Tomkowiak, founding dean of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine and chair of the board and ex officio director of Range Health. “Range Health fulfills this vision and, while there is a lot of work ahead to scale up, extend our reach and expand our offerings, we’re excited to take our first steps toward serving the communities that need us most.”

Range Health launches with its first mobile medical unit named for William A. Crosetto, a cattle rancher from Othello who passed away in January 2018. Known to friends as Bill, he worked with Innovia Foundation to create the William A. Crosetto Charitable Foundation to support medical education and rural health among other philanthropic interests. His legacy lives on in the William A. Crosetto Mobile Health Care Unit, which will travel to rural and underserved communities to provide comprehensive primary care, urgent care procedures, and preventive screening for conditions such as diabetes, cholesterol, pregnancy, STDs, asthma and more. The unit is slated to begin providing services in January 2020.

As a Washington State College runner who went on to compete in the Olympics, Bill’s father had a significant impact on his life, but he was most proud of the legacies established by his uncles, Fred Hutchison, a famous baseball player and Dr. William Hutchinson, who founded the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as well as the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute.

“Bill was proud of his family’s legacy but often felt he lived in the shadow of his uncles, and yet his generosity in our region will have just as deep of an impact,” said Shelly O’Quinn, CEO of Innovia Foundation. “Bill wanted to ensure rural residents would have access to doctors in their hometown. His legacy will allow people to age in place in the communities they love.”

Led by executives from the colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Range Health and the William A. Crosetto Mobile Health Care Unit will initially focus on care from doctors and medical students with plans to expand across all health sciences disciplines in the future.

“Humankind��is demanding solutions that support modern health care needs. Health care must be reimagined. With Range Health, we’re signaling steps taken to our larger vision of WSU Health—our initiative to advance health care across the Pacific Northwest,” said Daryll DeWald, WSU Health Sciences vice president and chancellor. “As education becomes more and more a critical component of health, WSU Health Sciences is uniquely equipped to embrace modern health care needs.”

True to its emphasis on bringing care to communities, Range Health will take its mobile unit on tour across the state in October. Sponsored by Banner Bank, the tour will travel to the college’s clinical campus sites in Vancouver, Everett and Tri-Cities where third-year medical students are now based full time for clinical training. All community members are encouraged to attend the tour events to see the mobile unit, meet locally based WSU students, and hear from WSU and Banner Bank leadership. Tour dates and locations include:

• Vancouver: Oct. 15 at 1 p.m. at the Banner Bank East Vancouver Branch 3100 SE 164^th
• Everett: Oct. 17 at 1 p.m. at the Banner Bank Everett Colby Branch 2531 Colby Everett Ave.
• Tri-Cities: Oct. 23 at 1 p.m. at the Banner Bank Richland Branch 1221 Jadwin Ave.

“It is our pleasure to partner with WSU to bring this tour to each of their clinical campus communities,” said Mark Grescovich, President & CEO of Banner Bank. “Like WSU, Banner Bank serves communities all across Washington, including many rural areas that will directly benefit from the mobile medical care unit. We are excited to help shine a light on the important work of the medical school and Range Health.”

For more information visit the��.

Media Contact

• Christina VerHeul, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, 509-368-6850,��christina.verheul@wsu.edu

RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities will host a welcome reception for the inaugural class of the Tri-Cities cohort of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. on Monday, June 17, in the Floyd Building Atrium.

Members of the media are invited to attend where they will have the opportunity to interview students and Dr. Farion Williams, WSU College of Medicine associate dean of clinical education.

The reception will also include brief remarks by Williams and ���سԹ� Chancellor Sandra Haynes, as well as a social featuring light appetizers and local wine.

Final two years full-time in Tri-Cities

The Tri-Cities cohort of medical students spent their past two years studying full-time at the WSU Spokane campus, with several trips to the Tri-Cities for clinical campus weeks where they participated in seminars, worked with local physicians and learned valuable skills for their medical career. During their clinical campus weeks, they stayed with community hosts in the Tri-Cities.

Beginning next week for their final two years in the program, they will study full-time in the Tri-Cities where they will complete classes at ���سԹ� and clinical rotations with local healthcare organizations.

“We are excited to welcome the inaugural class full-time to the Tri-Cities, and our Tri-Cities community is thrilled to work with these talented students at our local hospitals, doctor’s offices and health clinics,” Haynes said. “This is a fulfillment of the dream of late WSU President Elson S. Floyd, who had a vision that these students would impact our Washington community state-wide. These students will truly serve a medical need for our local communities here in the Tri-Cities.”

Glimpse into the students’ final two years in Tri-Cities

Throughout their two years in the Tri-Cities, the students’ clinical experiences will function in a longitudinal integrated clerkship. This means that the six core disciplines, which include family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, general surgery and psychiatry with additional content in neurology, are structured together and completed over the course of the entire year, instead of in traditional block experiences.

“Benefits of this model are improvement in empathy skills, increased recall of medical knowledge and the building of deeper relationships with patients,” Williams said. “Our students will learn from physicians here in the Tri-Cities from all of our hospital-affiliated partners, as well as those in private practice.”

“Our goal is to give the students an exceptional training experience such that they will want to stay here and practice in eastern Washington,” he said.

For more information about the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, visit .

 

Media contacts:

Dr. Farion Williams, WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine associate dean of clinical education, 509-372-7434, farion.willians@wsu.edu

Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� public relations specialist, 509-372-7333, maegan_murray@wsu.edu

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – Epidemiology expert Roy E. Shore will discuss what scientists and medical professionals currently know about the human health effects of radiation exposure as part of a Herbert M. Parker Lecture that will begin 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, in the ���سԹ� East Auditorium.

Shore was a professor and chief of the epidemiology division at New York University School of Medicine before serving at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima-Nagasaki as vice chairman and chief of research. He is an author of approximately 100 radiation-related publications and is currently working with other investigators on studies of radiation and various diseases.

Shore’s interests include the effects of radiation on both cancer and noncancer disease incidence and understanding the epidemiologic and biological modification of radiation effects by various environmental, genetic and age factors.

This free public presentation is part of the Herbert M. Parker Lecture Series and is sponsored by��the��Herbert M. Parker Foundation, which partners with ���سԹ�.

The Herbert M. Parker Foundation was created in 1987 to memorialize Parker and his many significant contributions to radiation protection, radiation biology, the environment and radiotherapy, and to support academic and public education in radiological and related sciences.

To learn more, visit the ���سԹ� Parker Foundation website,��.

By Linda Weiford, WSU News

With temperatures shooting up to 110 degrees and smashing heat records in parts of Washington state, people are at increased risk of suffering from heatstroke – the most serious of heat-related illnesses.

“It’s as if the body, like an oven, gets turned on to the highest possible setting. No longer able to regulate its core temperature, it begins to cook,” said family physician Farion Williams, associate dean of clinical education at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Tri-Cities campus.

“Heatstroke is a medical emergency that can lead to confusion, seizures, loss of consciousness and damage to internal organs, including the brain,” he said. “While young children and seniors are particularly vulnerable, it’s also seen in otherwise healthy people of all ages.”

Scorching weather has prompted the National Weather Service to issue an excessive heat warning across Washington’s eastern half. The hottest temperatures are expected today, with highs expected to soar to 110 degrees in Lewiston-Clarkston, 108 in the Tri-Cities area, 106 in Yakima and 103 in Moscow-Pullman. Temperatures should run near 100 degrees on Friday.

To prevent heatstroke and other heat-related illnesses, “drink plenty of fluids, take breaks in the shade and wear loose, lightweight clothing,” said Dr. Williams, adding that tight clothes lock in the heat, reducing the skin’s ability to cool.

People who work or exercise outside should try to schedule more strenuous activities for early morning or evening, he advised. People should also recognize signs of heat exhaustion, which, if not treated, can progress into life-threatening heatstroke, he said.

Symptoms of heat exhaustion include muscle cramps, fatigue, dizziness and nausea. Treat the condition by resting in a cool, shady place and drinking plenty of water or other fluids – not alcohol or caffeine, Williams cautioned. An ice pack or a cold, wet towel applied to armpits, the nape of the neck or groin area will also help lower body temperature, he explained.

If symptoms include an altered mental state, flushed skin and rapid breathing, suspect heatstroke. “Call 9-1-1. Get to a hospital–as soon as possible,” he said.

Finally, remember that children and pets can swelter to death within minutes when left in a parked vehicle on a blistering summer day, Williams urged.

Since 1998, an average of 37 children have died each year in the United States of vehicular heatstroke, making it the second leading cause of death of children in vehicles, next to crashes, according to the National Safety Council.

Contacts:

• Dr. Farion Williams, WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Tri-Cities campus, 509-372-7434,��farion.williams@wsu.edu
• Linda Weiford, WSU News, 509-335-7209,��linda.weiford@wsu.edu

By Elinor Lake, intern, ���سԹ� communications

RICHLAND, Wash. – Former professor and long-time ���سԹ� donor Ronald Kathren and his wife Susan have donated a huge collection of radiological books to ���سԹ�.

The 3,400-item collection of books, valued at more than $250,000, details subjects from radiation biophysics, to toxicological profiles for ionizing radiation, to how radioactivity impacts health.

Ronald Kathren said he wanted to donate the collection to ���سԹ� because it would serve as a research resource to students, faculty and professionals in radiological, engineering and other related industries. It also serves as a useful historical collection, he said.

Kathren taught radiological and environmental sciences at ���سԹ� and served as the director of the U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries at WSU. He currently serves on the Herbert M. Parker Foundation board, a partner of WSU, which is committed to educating the public on radiological sciences. The Parker Foundation also hosts two lectures a year to provide renowned professionals of the radiological sciences an educational platform.

The collection is incredibly valuable to ���سԹ� as a resource, as the university has many research and professional ties to the Hanford Site, in the radiological cleanup effort of the site and generally in the study of how radiation impacts health and other areas, said Karly Bailey, development coordinator for the WSU Foundation.

“The collection contains unique materials relating to studies of radiological effects, including works by such scientific luminaries as Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford, as well as the library of the radium dial painter studies,” he said. “As such it will be of value to students and researchers in medicine, physics, environmental sciences and especially the Hanford History Project. Looking down the road, I see many scholarly publications that would benefit from it.”

Kathren is a graduate of UCLA and the University of Pittsburgh, is board certified in both health physics and environmental engineering and is a past president of the Health Physics Society and the American Academy of Health Physics.

 

Contact:

Steve Bisch, ���سԹ� library circulation supervisor, 509-372-7313, sbisch@wsu.edu

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – An elementary statistics in psychology course at Washington State University Tri-Cities partnered with Grace Clinic, a free health clinic in the Tri-Cities, to assess the mental health of its diabetic patients. The clinic now plans to use the data to maintain and improve its methods in meeting patient resources and health needs.

Throughout the fall semester course, the students analyzed the clinic’s diabetic patient A1C score data, which indicates the degree to which patients have their diabetes under control, and used a range of statistical assessments to determine the mental health of patients based on several potential barriers to treatment – some of which include age, race, language spoken and gender. They presented their results this month to Mark Brault, Grace Clinic’s chief executive officer, and clinic director Avonte Jackson.

The experience proved beneficial to both the clinic and the students.

“I believe that the students gained a lot of insight from this project – ��into themselves, the field and their community,” said Janet Peters, clinical assistant professor of psychology and instructor of the course. “The project also gave them a very marketable skillset related to quantitative literacy, social responsibility and communication skills.”

For the Grace Clinic, the main benefit is that the data provides support for some of the patterns they had been informally observing and the leg work to accomplish the analysis of that data, Peters said.

“Larger health organizations have people to do this kind of thing,” Brault said. “We have limited resources for this kind of in-depth analysis. We plan to use this data as we move forward.”

Student findings

Through their analysis, the students found that the clinic was doing an excellent job of creating access to health care. They determined that there was no definitive statistical differences in the observed mental health of their patients based on potential barriers to treatment such as primary language spoken and race.

The students did find, however, that there was a slight negative correlation between age and mental health, meaning that older patients reported slightly lower levels of mental health than younger patients, overall.

During her presentation, student Lindsay Bernesky recommended that the clinic leaders dedicate additional time to educating patients about the mental health services offered.

Impact on Grace Clinic

Both Brault and Jackson said the student presentations were informative and confirmed many of the things that their staff had suspected, but hadn’t had the time to dive into and assess.

“It is nice to have some statistical analysis to confirm many of these things,” Jackson said.

She also said the clinic plans to follow up on the mental health gap for their elderly patients, and that it has already started to introduce some additional services for that population.

“One of the gaps we recently discovered is that there is limited access to mental health services for Medicare patients,” she told the students. “We recently added patients with Medicare to our mental health area,” which affirms some of the student findings.

Brault said the clinic also is adding additional safety nets and services to support patient mental health throughout their clinic. In addition to seeing a physician, a scheduled health visit might also include seeing a mental health professional.

“It was good to hear that a lot of what we’re doing is working, and that a lot of what we’re putting in place will serve the needs of our patients,” Brault said.

Real-world benefit to students

Many of the students said they enjoyed the real-world aspect of the course and that it provided a greater understanding of statistical analysis in psychology research.

“I can read through a case study and understand all of the terminology and be able to fully understand the results,” student Nagat Deng said.

“To know that we took a burden off of them and that we are giving back in that way is amazing,” student Caitlyn Carroll said.

Student Martha Herrera said she appreciated that the real-world experience was interwoven with regular course material, which allowed students to work as a team.

“Dr. Peters gave us this opportunity to do something that would be beneficial for the community,” she said. “I think it is awesome that we have that opportunity here at WSU.”

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – Vincent Danna (’17) was in middle school when he lost all of his hair.

He suffers from a condition known as alopecia universalis, which is when the immune system mistakenly attacks the hair follicles. His personal struggle led him to want to become a dermatologist and help those who experience serious skin diseases and other ailments.

“It sounds silly,” he said, “but my experience really spiked my interest in wanting to help other people through medicine.”

His passion led him to pursue a degree in biological sciences at Washington State University Tri-Cities, which in turn helped him land an internship at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He continues to conduct cancer research with the computational biology group at PNNL.

He plans to use both experiences to get into a good medical school so that as a doctor, he can help others with similar and more serious medical conditions.

Real-world cancer research

At PNNL, Danna and his colleagues are analyzing ovarian cancer data in order to digitally categorize the productivity of what are called kinases. Kinases are enzymes within a cell that modify proteins and play a major role in the process of cell division.

Under the supervision of his PNNL mentor, Jason McDermott, Danna’s research focuses on identifying whether certain kinases are significantly overregulated or underregulated within cancer cells, which could demonstrate how kinases lead to the formation of malignant tumors. Targeting dysregulated kinases, he said, has the potential to stop the spread of the cancer, or to prevent it from developing altogether.

This spring, the team analyzed kinase data from 69 ovarian cancer patients. Danna said their results are promising.

“Cancer is essentially the over-replication of cells,” Danna said. “Chemotherapy targets fast-growing cells, but that can affect the whole body, as well as normal cells, which is why patients typically lose their hair. With our research, we hope to target something more specific, like a kinase or a gene.”

In the future, he said individuals may be able to take a drug or another inhibitor to suppress or better regulate those kinases.

“Targeted therapy is recognized as being one of the healthier and more beneficial methods in treating patients with ovarian cancer,” he said.

Danna and his colleagues at PNNL are now investigating whether dysregulated kinases have implications for phenotypes. Phenotypes are an organism’s gene-expressed observable characteristics, such as hair color. The outcome could help predict a patient’s lifespan and ability to fight ovarian cancer.

“The goal of that research is improving that patient’s quality of life and and to give them a better estimation of what they’re dealing with,” he said.

Additionally, Danna and other PNNL researchers are using similar processes to examine patient resistance or sensitivity to a type of cancer treatment called platinum therapy. The therapy uses platinum compounds to produce changes in the DNA structure as a way of treating specific cancers, including ovarian cancer.

Medical school and beyond

Danna said his science and statistics courses at ���سԹ� gave him the ideal foundation for being successful with his work at PNNL. He said gaining the biological knowledge, as well as developing the statistical analysis skills to understand the computational side of writing code and programming through his internship, is what gave him the background to be successful with his position at PNNL.

Combining his academic knowledge with the opportunity to work on research that has real-world medical applications, has given him a realistic look at how medical research is done, and as a result, is experience he can someday use as a doctor, he said.

“It feels good that the research I’m completing will hopefully make a difference in the lives of future cancer patients,” he said.

Danna plans to take the Medical College Admission Test this spring and apply to medical schools soon afterward. He is currently considering the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine as an option.

Looking to the future, he is excited to lead his own medical initiatives that one-day might positively impact the lives of patients.

“I know what it’s like to suffer from a condition that can affect your physical and even emotional well-being,” Danna said. “I hope to make a difference in the lives of my own patients, someday.”

Chosen as one of approximately 30 students��nationwide��for summer optometry experience in Berkeley��

By Jessica Roth, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash.��–��As a result of��resources and mentorship she received at��Washington State University Tri-Cities,��student��Catalina��Yepez��not only began the initial steps of realizing her future dream of becoming an eye doctor.��The opportunities also led her to be��selected for an opportunity open to only 30 students nationwide.

Yepez��was selected as one of 30 students��across the country��to participate in a weeklong workshop that prepares students for medical school��and��careers in optometry��at the University of California, Berkeley, this summer.��The opportunity is one that was recommended to her by a ���سԹ� professor.

She is now using the support of both her professors and her academic advisor to propel her opportunities as a future optometrist.

Identifying career dreams

Prior to beginning��college,��Yepez��said she didn’t know what she wanted to pursue as a professional career.��While going to school at Columbia Basin College,��Yepez��earned a receptionist job at a local vision clinic to help finance

her education. As she worked her way up, from clerical duties to conduction pre-testing for patients, she became fascinated by the whole field of optometry and found that she enjoyed working in the clinic.

While��conducting��an eye exam for a young boy who was fearful of the whole experience, but then became elated when receiving his first pair of glasses,��Yepez’s��eyes were opened about the opportunities in optometry.

“He exclaimed ‘I can see! I can see!” she said of the young boy’s reaction upon receiving his new glasses. “It was��rewarding knowing that something so small and simple can change a person’s attitude and expression for the better. That is when I realized that optometry is what I wanted to do.”

Propelling dreams into actions

Shortly after that experience,��Yepez��began restructuring her academic plan to meet the pre-med requirements for optometry. She decided to transfer to ���سԹ� her junior year to complete her undergraduate degree and to take advantage of the opportunities and resources available through the four-year university. An academic advisor, she said, was incredibly helpful with that process.

“I spoke to��Mariella��(Lora) with advising, she helped me out so much with my decision to transfer to ���سԹ�,” she said. “It’s amazing how far you can go with the right support.”

Last spring,��Elly��Sweet, ���سԹ� clinical assistant professor of biology, encouraged Yepez to apply to internships to help her prepare for her future in optometry. This prompted her to look into prospective schools that she’d be interested in attending, and through her search she found a workshop offered at University of California, Berkeley.

The workshop allows students to experience what life was like as a medical student in the school’s optometry program. The program also provides students with valuable information about the admissions requirements and standards for medical school.

Yepez��gained a recommendation from��Nelmi��Devarie��Baez, ���سԹ� clinical assistant professor of chemistry, to include with her application for the program. She said she had��Devarie��Baez as an instructor for her organic chemistry class, which was one of��her��hardest courses. But through his mentorship, she gained an understanding for the material that would be vital to her future as an optometrist. With his recommendation and to her surprise,��Yepez��was selected of one of 38 students from around the United States for the experience.

“I didn’t expect it at all,” she said of her admittance into the program.

Through the program,��Yepez��spent��one week in California with her cohort learning about strategies for a good score on the Optometry Admission Test, which is required for admittance into any optometry program, in addition to learning about how to prepare for an interview in the medical school application process and opportunities for real-world experiences in optometry after graduation. She also got to tour the university’s facilities and get a feel for the types of things they would be doing as medical optometry students.

“It was exciting,” she said. “We played with all of their equipment and learned how to perform a basic eye exam on each other. We learned more about the eye and vision and we got to experience a little bit of what it’s like to be a student there.”

Planning��future career success

Yepez��said if it wasn’t for the help and support of the faculty and staff at ���سԹ�, she might not have realized her potential as a future optometrist and wouldn’t have gained admission into the Berkeley��workshop.

“Everybody here at ���سԹ� is trying to help you succeed,” she said. “There are a lot of resources here if you use them, and they help you out a lot. I am very happy I came here.”

Following her graduation this spring,��Yepez��said she plans to spend a gap year job shadowing local optometrists in the field and volunteering at a local cancer center before applying to optometry programs. She said she one-day hopes to work in a medical firm in the��Tri-Cities��region and might consider opening her own practice.

“WSU��Tri-Cities��has made me realize that optometry��is a competitive field and I need to be a competitive applicant,” she said.��“There��are ways for me to prepare and resources here I can use.��I’ve definitely gotten help every time I’ve asked for it.”

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – A career fair will be hosted by Washington State University Tri-Cities, 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, in the Consolidated Information Center and Student Union Building.

The career fair is free and open to ���سԹ� students, alumni and the public. The event allows organizations to discuss employment opportunities with potential employees. ���سԹ� students are encouraged to connect with industry representatives to learn more about prospective employment and internships.

Beginning at 8 a.m., the ���سԹ� Career Development will host the “State of the Tri-Cities Workforce” panel discussion, a new program to the career fair. The forum enables panelists to provide a strategic and professional analysis of the local workforce. Panelists will present their understanding of the behaviors and resources that help maintain and strengthen the Tri-Cities area economy. Those interested in attending should RSVP at careers@tricity.wsu.edu

The event also will feature a career development student spotlight program that allows students to practice and deliver their one-minute resume pitches to on-site recruiters.

For more information about the ���سԹ� career fair, visit��.

 

Media Contacts:

• Eadie Balint, ���سԹ� career development, 509-372-7214,��ebalint@tricity.wsu.edu
• Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� public relations, 509-372-7333,maegan.murray@tricity.wsu.edu