By Tiffiny Gaston |staff writer|

Cal State San Bernardino will be holding an informational Pre-Medical and Pre-Health conference on Saturday Jan. 19.
The Pre-Medical and Pre-Health Student Society here at CSUSB organized the conference to prepare students for medical school and to provide them with an insight into future job opportunities.
According to an earlier press release from news.csusb.edu, “For students who live in Southern California, our goal and our hope is that they come back to the community and actually help their community; serve their community in the healthcare profession,” said Rick Cordova, a CSUSB biology major and member of the executive committee.
The CSUSB pre-medical and pre-health programs provide students with an opportunity to help others.
Sharaya Tran, a pre-nursing student here at CSUSB, came into the medical field for that very reason.
“I got into the medical field because I love helping people,” said Tran.
“The feeling you get when they show that they appreciate you is unexplainable. When I did my internship in high school, I loved what I did,” she added.
The conference will have panel discussions and workshops to provide an educational learning space for students.
The conference workshops will have a wide range of activities. According to the press release, it will include primary care, application and admission processes for medical school, surgery, nursing and pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, veterinary medicine and health disparities.

There will also be respected keynote speakers from the health care and health education fields.
Keynote speakers include Alejandro Andrade, a CSUSB alumnus who graduated in 2005 with a bachelor’s in biology and in 2009 graduated from The University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Dr. G. Richard Olds, the dean at the UC Riverside School of Medicine, will also be speaking at the conference.
According to csusbpremed.org, “This conference wishes to promote the availability and profitability of health care professions to the pre-medical and pre-health student body of CSUSB and throughout Southern California.”
The conference is meant to inspire students to explore further into the health profession and gain a greater understanding of the medical and healthcare field.
Danielle Allen, a CSUSB student who is majoring in Biology said, “Doing this degree you learn about how many health care professions there are.”
The conference will provide the pre-medical and pre-health programs with the exposure needed to progress and to further advance.
The goal is to help CSUSB gain a larger student body and to expand into other avenues.
According to csusbpremed.org, “This conference seeks to inspire students in the city of San Bernardino and in Southern California to pursue their education in health sciences.”Its primary objective is that students will leave the conference with a greater understanding of the medical and health field and will be able to expand further into the community.