Health Professions Advisor

The Health Professions Advisor (HPA) will provide pre-health advising for first and second year undergraduate students across all colleges within the University regarding proper curricular decisions, community engagement, and other experiential activities that will best prepare them for success in their chosen health profession. The HPA works closely with the Director of Health Professions Advising to establish academic and extracurricular programs that foster strong interpersonal and intrapersonal growth and professionalism.

 

• Advise undergraduate pre-health students; Serve as Vice-Chair of the Health Professions Advisory Committee that evaluates portfolios of students preparing to apply to health professional school.
• Assist the HPA Director with letter packet writing. Work with CASA (a resource center for underrepresented, first generation and Pell-Eligible students) to support pre-health students in their programs which involves working closely with CASA staff to support student success.
• Consult with CLAS Director of Academic Advising to ensure the needs of exploratory arts and sciences students interested in Health Professions are being met during orientation, registration, declaration of majors, etc.
• Participate in monthly Office for Undergraduate Student (OUS) Faculty Advisor workshops to keep current on curriculum and best practices.
• Serve as resource to OUS Faculty Advisors and other faculty and staff around campus

 

• Plan and teach a minimum of one 1-credit professional development seminar course for pre-health students per academic year; As experience increases, offer more than one 1-credit course per year.
• The courses assist in students’ ability to make an informed decision about their career choice.
• Course planning/instruction includes contacting health care professionals from fields less well-known to students for in-class presentations/discussions and providing information about internships and co-op opportunities working with OUS and Career Center staff.
• Additional professional development responsibilities include offering themed workshops, such as a first-year information session each fall.
• The HPA manages a Mid-Stream Assessment program which provides feedback on pre-health students’ portfolios in advance of the letter packet process.
• This voluntary assessment is most often completed in the spring of the student’s second year of pre-health preparation.

• Serve as liaison with the Health Professions Affiliation Program partners and the Office of Admissions to manage submission and distribution of application materials and communications with accepted students.
• Manage the revision and distribution of an HPA questionnaire sent to all incoming first-year students to ascertain pre-health interests and make recommendations to the Registrar on appropriate course placement for incoming first-year students in exploratory majors.

• Act as mentor to the the Villanova Minority Association of Pre-health Students (MAPS) and other pre-health student club advising.
• Manage selection of student members for the pre-health honor society and run induction ceremony in collaboration with the Director.

• Work collaboratively with the Director on presentations for accepted students during special on-campus events and information sessions and workshops coordinated by the HPA Office for current students.
• Collaborate with OUS Professional Development team and Career Center on programming and initiatives.
• Support the Director in various data-collection or data analysis projec

• Master’s degree required.

• Knowledge of student development theory (including as applied to students from populations underrepresented in STEM and health care), principles of academic advising, and ability to teach in a college setting
• Minimum of three to five years of experience in undergraduate academic advising, student programming, admissions, teaching or counseling students, with more experience preferred.