Texas Children’s Hospital educates youth at JA Inspire event

February 17, 2015

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Texas Children’s Hospital recently participated in Junior Achievement’s largest youth gathering called JA Inspire to provide thousands of eighth graders hands-on exposure to some of the region’s best employers.

Representatives from Human Resources, Nursing and the Emergency Center spent three days at the event’s career fair in Pasadena and another three days at the event’s career fair in Cypress encouraging students to explore and prepare for potential career opportunities in health care. They talked to the students about how multi-faceted the health care industry is and provided the students with information that will help them learn about relevant coursework and curriculum as they prepare for high school and beyond.

“It was so nice to see the look on the students’ faces when we described working at a pediatric hospital,” said Liz Wuestner, a clinical specialist for the Emergency Center. “These young people are our future health care providers, and it was a great opportunity to inspire them to pursue a degree in nursing.”

Chief of Emergency Medicine Dr. Paul Sirbaugh was a featured speaker at the event in Cypress and said afterward that he “had forgotten how rewarding it is to interact with middle school students who have so much passion and excitement for the future.”

“They see no barriers, only possibilities,” he said.

The JA Inspire event is just one of the many ways Texas Children’s Hospital continues to grow its footprint in the community. Our organization will continue to have a presence at events similar to JA Inspire to help build the future talent pipeline.