Students Get Career Guidance, Network for Jobs at AHIMA25

Janae Channer came home from Minneapolis with about 15 business cards—a nice number for a student looking to start a career in health information.

She got them through networking at AHIMA25, which she attended with 25 other students from Bowie State University in Maryland. They made up the largest group of students from one school to attend the conference in October in Minneapolis, where they participated in educational sessions on health information, got expertise on crafting their resumes, and networked for future jobs.

“It was a great trip because we gained a lot of networking experience, and we were able to create bonds with the people that we met—everything that will help lead us to future careers,” says Channer, who graduates in December.

The students were able to attend the conference through grant funding to the university’s Public Health Informatics and Technology (PHIT) program. The students had their travel and conference costs covered by the funds and got membership to AHIMA.

“Aside from the students being very appreciative, I had a lot of students tell me this is the first time I’ve been given this opportunity,” says Jennifer Albury, MBA, Research ​Associate in the Public Health Informatics and Technology Department of Health Sciences at Bowie State, who coordinated the trip. “They enjoyed it, they were networking, and they wanted to learn more. They took a lot of pride in what AHIMA had to offer.”

An Education in Health Information

Albury says it was a great experience for such a large group of students to attend an event related to their education and career paths.

“They want to get out there professionally and get motivated in what it is they want to do in the health informatics and technology sector,” she says. “They met a lot of [health information] professionals, and the direct questions and the direct engagement not only gave them confidence but also allows them to explore maybe different options in terms of what their career may be.”

Albury adds of the conference, “It gives them not only an opportunity to network but also get a feel for what it’s like to be out in the real world in terms of a career.”

Channer says she’s going to refine her resume before she graduates, and she got some help at the conference on improving her LinkedIn profile.

“I got my whole LinkedIn set up, which is awesome,” she says. “I feel like it really pushed me to get everything ready, and the networking aspect of it was great as well. I was able to meet a lot of people.”

Channer is glad she went to AHIMA25 and came back with career guidance and more knowledge of the health information field.

“The networking aspect was great, and I liked how they allowed us to get free headshots,” she says. “I got some LinkedIn support, and I felt like that was a plus because a lot of us could definitely use that.”

Damon Adams is content production editor for AHIMA.