By Bella Zaghi, Board Member and Chairperson, Academic Alliance Community

On October 14, the HIMSS SoCal Academic Alliance Committee was invited to present to a crowd of 30 MHA candidates at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. During the presentation, students were informed about the various events and opportunities held by HIMSS as well as the many benefits offered through membership.

As two of the top three HIMSS Chapter scholarship recipients in 2013, presenters Thao Tran and Stephen Lee, encouraged students to apply for Chapter scholarships. They both discussed how they began their journey from being students to working in the HIT field and now acting as HIMSS volunteers.  The presenters emphasized how important it is for students to take advantage of the one-year complementary membership to first-time student attendees at HIMSS outreach events. Most importantly students were made aware of a big opportunity to become program assistants for HIMSS15 in Chicago and hear the Keynote speech from former U.S. President, George W. Bush.

Some students expressed concerns about their lack of experience in Information Technology during the Q&A session. The panel happily expressed that HIMSS was not limited to those with IT backgrounds. In fact, HIMSS fosters an inter-collaborative community of nurses, physicians, IT analysts, CIOs, COOs, allied health care professionals, public health and health policy professionals. These professionals may have started out with limited IT backgrounds and developed successful careers in Health IT. Students were pleased to learn about the annual scholarships offered to graduate students at the national and chapter levels.  

Overall, the event was filled with positive energy, and many students were enthusiastic and excited to sign up to become members. One student was highly encouraged to start her application early with the hopes of being the first USC scholarship winner of HIMSS SoCal.

We thank USC for graciously and successfully hosting HIMSS AAC for the third time, and we look forward to many more events with them in the future. 

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