VicTory 4 Kidz Hosts Lake County Healthcare Career Event

From February 23 through 25, VicTory 4 Kidz Founder and Visionary Dr. Regina Beard, RN, collaborated with partners to host an annual healthcare career event at the Lake County Fairgrounds. During the event, children in third through 12th grades were introduced to healthcare professionals and shown a number of different career opportunities in the field of medical care.

Partners from a number of local healthcare companies hosted booths and gave out prizes to children as they taught them about everything from suturing and wound care to nutrition and natural wellness treatments. Children were able to interact with many booths, including playing games and practicing biopsies on oranges.

Eve Gomez, a nonprofit public relations strategist and WLTH radio personality, believes that more schools could benefit from the yearly events hosted by VicTory 4 Kidz. Children came from schools throughout Indiana and Illinois, with well over two thousand children attending the three-day event.

“Whatever opportunity that our students get, especially in urban communities, our educators, our administrators, need to take advantage of this, because not every child gets this opportunity,” Gomez said. “As soon as they hear that this opportunity is open again, take advantage. Bring your students here.”

Day two keynote speaker Antonia Collins, director of marketing for Eli Lilly, spoke to a crowd of hundreds as she discussed her experience in pharmaceutical marketing. Children in attendance were invited to ask questions and gain knowledge from this valuable area of the healthcare field.

Collins, who grew up in Gary and graduated from Bishop Knoll High School before obtaining her marketing degree from Purdue University, was excited about this opportunity to give back to the healthcare community and share her experience with children from the area she calls home.

“This event is really important because it exposes kids of all ages to a variety of careers in the medical field and healthcare in general,” Collins said. “It’s important for kids to be able to see people who look like them and to see more about what their professional careers could look like if they’re looking to go into healthcare.”

A photobooth was available for students to pose with signs indicating their dreams of working in healthcare. Signs included “Future Dentist,” “Future Physical Therapist,” and many more. The opportunities for children to learn about these careers were virtually endless, with information tables lined up throughout the Industrial Building.

Dr. Tamara Betts brought her honors biology class from Colonel Wheeler Middle School in Crown Point to attend the event. Betts believes it is one of the greatest opportunities for area children to use their knowledge of science to guide them into their future careers.

“The people that run the booths are very well versed in the knowledge of their professions, and they’re all so sweet and friendly,” Betts said. “And the giveaways are on point! It’s kind of crazy. The kids come for the giveaways, but when they leave with the knowledge, it’s the icing on the cake.”

On day three, VicTory 4 Kidz awarded scholarships to students who were nominated by their school administrators. This is part of Dr. Beard’s mission to help children fall in love with the healthcare industry.

“Healthcare has more than 200 pathways, so my question is, ‘How could I give you choices?’” Beard said. “This is how we give students choices and help them make an informed decision. Figure out what you want to do and then go after it. If you haven’t decided what you want to do, come here, figure it out, and then go home and make a decision. I want kids to fall in love with health care, because what I tell students is, anything you want to do, you can do in health care. You want to be an attorney? You can be an attorney in health care. You want to do IT? You can do informatics analyst in health care. There are so many things you can do, but people don’t realize that you don’t have to touch a patients to be in health care. There are non-clinical pathways.”

A number of partners have been sponsoring the event since its start in 2023, and many have been partners of VicTory 4 Kidz since its founding in 2022. Notable partners include Edgewater Health, The Lake County Health Department, Legacy Foundation, Centier Bank and Papa John’s.

Veroniqca Kozel, a registered bachelor nurse with LaPorte County Career and Technical Education, is the director of the school’s CNA program and Health II instructor. She believes that while many children grow up knowing about doctors and nurses, many do not get to see the other areas in healthcare that could be ideal future careers for them.

“My students are juniors and seniors,” Kozel said. “They are ready to look at careers. A lot of them are looking into nursing. But then I’ve got some ultrasound, some radiology, respiratory, physical therapy, and sports medicine. I’ve got some phlebotomists, some of whom are going to go into many different aspects. I think I’ve got someone who wants to be an ER physician, so they were able to interact with some of those different vendors here, get some information about programming or the career itself.”

Another educator, EMS instructor Ryan Cogdill with the Hammond Area Career Center, brought his students to the event for training as well as to give them insight into all the other related areas of healthcare in one central location.

“They get to network and meet a whole bunch of people from a whole bunch of different careers,” Cogdill said. “They get to see colleges and to see a variety of things that there’s no way we can get into a classroom.”

VicTory 4 Kidz is growing, which means that more help is needed in multiple capacities within the organization.

“We’re starting a teacher’s Advisory Council, and we would love for teachers who are interested to send us a message on social media or our website if they’re interested,” Dr. Beard said.

For more information, visit www.VicTory4Kidz.net.