Dr.Joseph Nika, Pre-Health Advisor will talk about UNLV's program to prepare students to apply for health science professional schools (medical, dental, , veterinary, pharmacy, etc.). Accompanying Dr. Nika will be several pre-med students to talk about their successeses with the Pre-Med Program.(Pictured Left to right Dr. Ron Gary and Dr. Joseph Nika)
Joseph Nika is part of the UNLV College of Life Sciences (2005). He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Dallas, an MS from University of Texas at Dallas and his BS at the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Nika will give his presentation, "Preparing Students for Health Science Careers" at 12 Noon on Friday, January 30th, Friday, at the NevBio mtg: 11:30 check-in; Lunch & Presentation at Noon. Cost is $35. Make checks payable to NevBio. All credit cards taken at the door.
Since the UNLV College of Sciences started a Pre-Health Science Advisor Program in 2005 to help students with admission to medical, dental and other schools. The admissions to Med Schools in 2006 jumped to over 80% from the 40% in 2005. In 2007 the acceptances stayed over 80%. The national average is approximately 40%.
Dr. Joseph Nika was hired in January 2005. Since then, he has developed a substantial Health Science Pre-Professional Program (HSPP). The HSPP hosts health science professional schools annually which include admissions officers from medical, dental, pharmacy, veterinary, optometry, and physical therapy programs.
During these visits, the students have the opportunity to go to lunch with many of these admissions officers and make a favorable impression prior to entry into the application cycle.
In addition to providing the opportunity to interact with the admissions officers for the schools above, HSPP also provides a number of services that allow students to procure all the non-curricular requirements for admission to medical school.
Pre-dental students must acquire a substantial amount of clinical experience and a letter of recommendation from a healthcare provider. HSPP has set up a chapter of Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED), a pre-health honor society that has both dental and physician shadowing committees.
These committees will arrange dental shadowing experiences for students, thus affording students the opportunity to acquire clinical experience and secure a letter of recommendation from a healthcare provider in one fell swoop.
In addition to this, students need to acquire humanitarian service experience. AED also has a humanitarian service committee that maintains contact with many organizations in the greater Las Vegas Area.
AED students have volunteered worked with Opportunity Village, Shade Tree, the Polycistic Kidney Disease Foundation, Candle Lighters Foundation and Habitat for Humanity.
