For many students, the path to a healthcare career can be intimidating. Navigating the complexities of the highly-competitive medical school application process, identifying and fulfilling prerequisites, and choosing the right specialization can all be daunting tasks when taken on alone.
Willamette University’s Health Professions Club (HPC) is working to change that. This student-run organization connects aspiring healthcare professionals with peers, advisors, and working clinicians — building a community around the shared challenges of a competitive pre-health journey. Members have gone on to pursue opportunities in laboratory research, occupational therapy, nursing, and beyond.
“The pre-health journey can be difficult and isolating, especially for those seeking competitive professional degrees,” says Gavin Klipfel BA’26, club president and a double major in Chemistry and Public Health. “Leading the HPC has allowed me to help build a community of pre-health students that genuinely care and support each other.”
While the club is led by students, the Career Center's FamilyCare Pre-Health Advisor Claire Hoffman BA’12 brings her experience in the healthcare sector to support student’s professional goals and development. She has co-hosted a number of events with HPC, including resume workshops, informational sessions about graduate programs, and practice MCAT sessions. By cultivating relationships with practicing physicians, Hoffman has also connected students to potential employers through career talks with clinicians, doulas, surgeons, dentists, and speech therapists.
HPC also frequently sponsors events in the Willamette community — most notably the annual Red Cross Blood drive in partnership with Willamette’s Fraternity and Sorority Life. Through HPC, students live out Willamette’s motto — Not unto ourselves alone are we born — by being active members of a tight-knit community rooted in service. Students often facilitate charity events such as an Oral Health Charity Drive and charity walk in Corvallis, Oregon that helps fundraise for the Oral Cancer Foundation.
The impact of participation in HPC is immeasurable for many students — bringing them in relationship with their peers and offering vital work, internship, and research experiences. This dedication to Willamette’s pre-health community has lessened the often isolating pressures of pursuing a competitive profession for students, teaching them that there is strength in community.
