How a grandmother's illness inspired my pharmacy career

¶ … beloved Grandmother was stricken with Alzheimer's, I spent a great deal of time incredibly frustrated by the fact that there was little I could do to help that lovely woman. From that adversity and pain, my interest in pharmacy was born. Since I spent so much time helping my Grandmother manage her medications, I realized the value of patient education when it comes to prescriptions. My desire to help others, coupled with my knowledge of the difficulties that many patients on more than one medication face, convinced me that pharmacy was the right choice for me.

Currently, I am finishing my last year for my Masters in Biomedical Science and working on a thesis dealing with the Nicotine Receptors in the Brain. I have worked incredibly hard to get to where I am today. I came to this country from Iran after high school, where I graduated as Valedictorian, and when I first began college, my English was not yet very good. As a result of this, my grades suffered during that first year. This showed a sharp contrast to my high grades in high school, especially in the sciences. Since then, however, my grades have drastically improved, and I am on the Dean's List.

My work at Walgreens as a Pharmacy Technician has helped me to understand the needs of patients, and this is in addition to my part-time work in the Pharmacy Department at St. Luke Hospital. Through both of these jobs, I get the best of both worlds - both retail and clinical pharmacy. These experiences, in addition to my work with the Student Government Association and the Pre-Professional Medical Society Club, have helped to shape who I am and my dedication to my chosen field.