After Stacey Prodaniuk graduates from the University of British Columbia, she’d like to make her way back home.
The physical therapy student and Thunder Bay native attended the 11th annual Home for the Holidays Health Care Student Reception Thursday at the Confederation College REACH facility.
The reception aims to help health-care students network with the local health-care managers, administrators, health care professionals and physicians and show them the types of opportunities available in the industry in Thunder Bay.
Prodaniuk said as an out-of-province student the reception is a great way for her to connect with health care professionals in Thunder Bay and get an idea of what she can come back to after she graduates.
“I’d like to move my way on back,” she said. “My family’s here. I grew up here. Everyone I know is here.”
Stephanie Zeleny is in her fourth-year of nursing at Lakehead University and said she’d ultimately like to work in Thunder Bay. She saw the Home for the Holidays reception as a way to see what the local employment options would be.
“When most people think of Thunder Bay, I think they think of the Thunder Bay Regional (Health Sciences Centre), but there are also a lot of other places within Thunder Bay that offer positions for health care professionals,” she said.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to explore some of those options,” she added.
City of Thunder Bay community relations coordinator Cheryl Armstrong said they choose to host the reception shortly after Christmas because most students are still home visiting family, but the rush of Christmas has passed.
The event usually sees about 100 people – a mix of both students and professionals – and Armstrong said there are people from all different health care avenues, including pharmaceuticals, X-ray, nursing and health sciences.
The reception is also a great way to keep connected with students that are studying outside of Ontario and to let them know there are many job opportunities, she added.
“Thunder Bay is going through so much growth in the health care industry,” Armstrong said, noting that growth can be seen from the addition of the new hospital, medical school, research institute and the REACH facility in recent years.
