238 organizations D e a l e r s Standing out among the crowd in one’s profession was difficult at times. With piles of résumés to look through, admission offices of medical schools continued to see the same thing — students with a high GPA and a passion for medicine. That was what sophomore Brandon Rhoads discovered at his summer internship at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in North Little Rock. He realized Harding needed to help pre-pharmacy students stand out from the rest. Rhoads spent most of his summer getting good work experience. Every day he received medicine check lists for each patient for half the wards in the hospital. “My job at the VA hospital was simply stocking medicines and delivering them to hospital wards daily,” Rhoads said. When he had downtime on the job, he searched different pre-doctor student web sites and saw what many of the colleges of pharmacy were looking for in their future students. That was when he realized there was more to getting accepted than just good grades. “The types of things I saw were experience, involvement in community and school, GPA and of course your PCAT score,” Rhoads said. “I also saw that many students were in pharmacy clubs, so I began to look into those.” The rest of Rhoad’s summer was spent contacting Harding professors and formulating ideas for a pharmacy club at Harding. He started out by contacting Dr. Richard Duke and joining the Health Science Club. “After joining, I had some ideas for a specialized club made specifically for pre-pharmacy students since Harding had just opened our own pharmacy school,” Rhoads said. He then used his free time outside of his internship to converse with Dr. David Cole, the Chemistry Chair and Health Science Club advisor, and another pharmacy student, sophomore Corey Baber. Together they made the club constitution and formed the foundations of the club. Rhoads and Baber then went to Harding’s Summer Experience to share their ideas with the incoming pre-pharmacy students. The Pre-Pharmacy Club was designed to give students as much information as possible about what it took to get into pharmacy school. Rhoads and Baber, along with sophomore BK Mthongana, vice president of the club, and freshman Jessica Knoske, made binders with pharmaceutical information and information about different pharmacy schools. The club also worked on getting some volunteer experience at White County and River City Ministry clinics for its members. “Through the club we’ve talked to hospitals and other places with pharmacies about helping our members get some experience,” Mthongana said. At each meeting, Rhoads and Mthongana lined up a guest speaker to speak to the club. Speakers included Julie HixonWallace, dean of Harding College of Pharmacy, Jane Gault, director of the VA Hospitals in Pharmacy, Todd Brackins from Lilly Research and Sales, and Jake Blair, a graduate student at Harding’s College of Pharmacy. “Being in this club gives us a chance to hear from speakers all around Arkansas, which gives us more of an insight into the pharmacy field,” sophomore Kim Hang said. Listening to speakers was not the only thing the meetings entailed. Each month, a different member made a presentation. “[At each meeting] we also have a drug of the month,” Mthongana said. “Someone in the club presents a medical drug that they or their family have been affected by.” The club’s main purpose was to provide students with experience in the field of pharmacy so they would stand out among all the other pre-pharmacy students. “I have learned so much that I can apply to my future career,” sophomore Kinyata Gray, secretary of the club, said. “Serving as secretary has also been great because it’s helping me become a professional.” The Pre-Pharmacy Club met the first Thursday of every month. Not only was this a great time for the members to listen to professionals and learn about new medicines, but also for them to commiserate on their classes and homework. Once a month was not very often for a club to meet, but these pre-pharmacy students carried a heavy course load. Though their time was sparse, most would agree it was worth the extra time spent. “The Pre-Pharmacy Club has greatly influenced my knowledge about the career of pharmacy as a whole,” Gray said. Katie Fittz Row 1: K. Koch, M. Guzman, E. Provencher, E. Burke, R. Marshall, A. Langston, L. Haynes, K. Frick. Row 2: S. Myers, A. Tappe, A. Durgin, A. Hurst, T. Shurley, J. Rivas, J. Welker, L. Ritchie (Sponsor). Row 1: B. Mancil, T. Sheehan, N. Burt, C. Brockwell. Row 2: M. Binns, W. McMullan, L. Otwell, D. Kady. Row 3: H. Buzhard, L. Reeder. Dietetics Club Student Nurse Association Officers A Future Of Distributing Legal Drugs
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