Road to PharmD

For some university students, the summer months mean handing off the organizations they've been a part of to the new incoming executive team. This year, I had the pleasure of doing so, with a twist . As someone who's been involved with student clubs and organizations since their undergraduate days, I recognized that the summer plays an increasing importantly role in strategic planning. It's about the only time in the year where student leaders can spend some time thinking about long-term goals. In my experience, the transitions aim to prepare incoming execs of how to repeat a successful year or how to make events better, rather than consider how to adapt to changes the organization can expect in the future, which may include cancelling previous events. A month ago, I wanted to change that as I handed off my Process and Quality Improvement role at the IMAGINE Clinic . The IMAGINE team is a relatively large one compared to most other undergraduate student organizations.

As midterm exams were looming around the corner that is February, I took a leap of faith and decided to skip an entire day's of class to participate in what would become a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Our team, PharmaSee, had a week to prepare a solution for the case to us in the form of a 10 minute pitch followed by a Q&A session with the judges. I won't bore you with the details of the day and what happened, but rather I'm going to present what I took away. Pharma companies are made of people, too I often forget this, especially since the media doesn't always portray them in a positive light. But after speaking with staff members from many departments, it was clear that their passion isn't much different than that of a healthcare professional, which is to fight for patient outcomes and improve quality of life. Case in point:  A recent, but promising, drug trial for Alzheimer's Disease was considered a failure. The staff's reaction to the re