When graduate student Daniel Hardison left his hometown of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, to study at Harding in 2008, he knew he had found his calling. A little adventure and a lot of change became routine for Hardison as he entered the pharmacy program with the simple goal of helping people through medicine. "Going to Ghana during my 8th grade year is what really sparked my interest in pharmacy," Hardison said. "In Ghana, my friend and I worked as techs for the pharmacist there. At first, I was a little bummed because I wanted to help teach and preach, but we were needed at the pharmacy. I quickly began to learn how to read prescriptions, learned more about drugs and started to really like pharmacy. The best part about it was not learning about the medications, however, but seeing the smiles on the patients' faces when I gave them something to help them. That was when I knew pharmacy was what I need to do." Hardison's love for helping people was noticed by his friends, such as seniorJohn Mark Adkison, who had known Hardison since his freshman year. "What I admire most about Daniel is his commitment to relationships," Adkison said. "He is the kind of friend who is constantly set to 'encouragement mode,' always lifting us up and always ready to listen. And since he is no longer an undergraduate, he works just as hard, if not harder, to make sure to keep our friendship strong. He is really just great at being a great friend." The group of close-knit friends had kept connections with each other over the past four years through hiking trips across the state of Arkansas. 2 'I b Graduate Shannon Lair Alyssa Laurich Yoon-Jong Lee Katie Patterson 'li~ of the world "The 2011 trip to Mount Nebo got us off campus, away from our books, and we spent the majority of the trip laughing our heads off," Adkison said. "We want to make Mount Nebo (or Italy, whichever we can afford) our reunion destination when we all get older and have families." On Oct. 6, 2011, during his first semester of graduate school, Hardison proposed to his fiancee, senior Amanda Hurt, at the lily pond where the couple began their relationship three years earlier. "I got two disposable cameras, and we both took pictures around Harding of all the different memories of us together in the past three years," Hardison said. "I had them developed, and we met at the fountain where I first asked her out. We went through the pictures, and the very last one was of the ring. That's when I knelt down and asked her to marry me." Hardison was not sure what the future held for them, but he said working in pharmacy overseas was particularly appealing. He planned to work in compounding pharmacy, designing alternative drug methods for children who could not take medicine normally. "Compounding pharmacy is basically finding a different dosage form, such as suckers, lotions, capsules, suppositories, etc., to more adequately suit the needs of the patients if they can't swallow a pill well," Hardison said. From his adventures hiking across The Natural State to delivering life-saving medications to people overseas, Hardison looked forward to future possibilities that would unfold over time. John Shrable ~_,....:. ' ,,; .. IW1
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