Read profiles of students and recent graduates to find out what it's like to be a PharmD student at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. Their profiles highlight unique leadership and educational opportunities, as well as their commitment to improving their communities.
Thu Ha Nguyen represented the University of Minnesota at the National CLARION Interprofessional Healthcare Case Competition. Participating in the CLARION Case Competition led Nguyen to one main takeaway: every profession is unique.
It’s never too late to become a pharmacy student. This is the main impression one has after learning about Carolyn O’Donnell’s educational journey. O’Donnell had a degree in music business and the entertainment industries from the University of Miami. She was working in the music industry before she changed career trajectories. Today, she’s an award-winning pharmacy student at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy’s Duluth campus and is slated to graduate in May 2020.
Kelly Potz is the current president of the Minnesota Pharmacy Student Alliance (MPSA), which brings together student pharmacists from both campuses with a central purpose to promote their growth into excellent pharmacists at the top of their respective fields.
A Minnesota girl through and through, Jessica Raines hopes her experiences at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy will help her lead a long successful career at a rural community hospital somewhere in the state.
Atuobi Nana Yiadom is the first pharmacy student to participate in Mayo Clinic’s summer graduate training program in pharmacokinetics. He took Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics courses at the college and discovered that he really enjoyed precision medicine and the ability to tailor a patient’s treatment.
Hannah Berg, a native of Mound, Minnesota, started her pharmacy journey at Ohio State University, where she earned a bachelor’s in pharmaceutical sciences. Before attending Ohio State, Berg wasn’t interested in pharmacy. She was just a girl who enjoyed growing up on a lake. The coursework of her degree intrigued her, though, and she decided to pursue pharmacy.
Leah Cashman describes herself as always asking “why” and “how,” and a lifelong learner. Her senior year of undergrad she was working as an equine vet tech and became curious of how TPNs work, which sent her on a quest for answers at the on-site compounding pharmacy. She was blown away with the pharmacy profession.
Born in Long Beach, California, Ariel Clark, is the daughter of a military family and a PharmD student at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Duluth. Clark is currently working on a suicide prevention program for her leadership emphasis area project, with the hope that it will help everyone including veterans.
Patty Maglalang, a graduate in the Class of 2021 talks about her experience at the College of Pharmacy and what's next for her.
As a pharmacy student, Elizabeth Nguyen's goal is to bridge the cultural gap between health care professionals and patients. She was drawn to the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy because of its involvement with the International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation (IPSF) and World Health Organization.
"I am extremely honored to have received the Deborah A. Kasper Memorial Award, which is given to someone who contributes most to everyday esprit de corps. I have the award hanging above my desk as a reminder of the importance of leadership by showing we are all working together to achieve our goals. It is also a reminder to make sure that I share my appreciation of others - a simple act of appreciation may end up being someone’s proudest accomplishment."
Julia Rumley, a graduate of the Class of 2021 talks about her experience at the College of Pharmacy and several activities and initiatives that had an impact.
As a self-described problem solver with a desire to learn new things daily, Cassandra Saunders says her love of talking to people and interest in how medications interact with and affect the body led her to pursue a career in pharmacy.
Having spent the majority of his childhood in nearby Hudson, Wisc., Cameron Wing was always drawn to Minnesota and the Twin Cities metropolitan area. He attended the University of Minnesota where he earned a degree in biochemistry along with a minor in public health before attending the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy.
Managing life as a student can be difficult. If you add being a husband, father and business owner on top of the demands of being a student, it wouldn’t be surprising if one found that overwhelming. Not Josiah Allen, though. As a class of 2022 student at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Allen is thriving with this exact scenario.
Chelsea Bolier chose pharmacy very early on, when she was in high school. She knew she wanted to do something in healthcare and pharmacy really stood out to her as an opportunity to build long-lasting, meaningful relationships with patients while also working alongside other professionals.
Eva Carlson has a passion for advocacy and legislative work which has been stimulated through her experience with the medication repository at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Twin Cities. Now in her third year at the college, this native of Burnsville, Minnesota, has had a winding path to pharmacy.
Anthony Culbertson,’22, who attended the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Duluth, found the Leadership Emphasis Area (LEA) program to be an indispensable part of his education.
A native of Aitkin, MN, Erin Host became interested in healthcare at a young age. Her uncle had lifelong and complicated health conditions. As a member of her uncle’s support system, Host experienced a lot of the healthcare system from the patient perspective. It was this experience, and a conversation she had with her uncle that shaped Host’s career intentions.
Jenna Putkammer is in the fourth year of her PharmD program at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Duluth, and is completing a five month rotation at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.