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Issue: Summer 2012 | Posted: June 18, 2012

First Class

Union's School of Pharmacy Graduates First Class

By Samantha Adams ('13)

Keta Patel receives her doctor of pharmacy diploma from David S. Dockery, president of the university, during spring graduation.

For the first time in Union’s history, pharmacy students joined other undergraduate and graduate students May 19 in walking across a stage on Union’s Great Lawn to receive diplomas.

The 41 students in the School of Pharmacy’s first graduating class held their own private ceremony in the morning to celebrate the completion of Union’s Doctor of Pharmacy program before a campuswide ceremony later that day.

The pharmacy students have finished a rigorous program of study.

“Normally we start out about eight in the morning,” said Allorie Smith, one of the graduates who also earned her undergraduate at Union. “On test days, you might start at four in the morning, doing wrap-up before you take a test.”

The pharmacy program includes lecture classes covering subjects ranging from pharmacology to faith and science, laboratory experience and 1,500 hours of practical experience, mostly achieved during 10 rotations at medical centers. The students moved from meeting in the Penick Academic Complex to inhabiting the brand-new Providence Hall in 2010.

The students selected Kim Jones, assistant dean of student services in the School of Pharmacy, to address the class at their graduation day gathering.

Jones said it was emotional for her to say goodbye to her students.

“They’re very trusting, faithful, maybe even a little adventurous,” Jones said. “I think it’s an adventure... to embrace a ������������ path at a new School of Pharmacy. That’s one thing that endears them so much to me. They trusted us; they’ve been responsive all along. I think they’re genuinely invested in what we’re trying to do. They’re a very special class.”

Ashley Turner, president of the graduating class, also addressed her fellow students at the private ceremony.

Throughout their four years together, the class had a special bond because they did all the “firsts” in the School of Pharmacy, Turner said. In large part, they determined the student school culture.

Turner led the student government council in creating a service-oriented class, which has participated in service on local and international levels. For example, students from all four pharmacy classes gave prescription drug abuse presentations to more than 540 teens in five high schools, earning national recognition from the American Public Health Association.

Smith said traveling with professors and other pharmacy students to Belize for a medical mission trip in January 2011 was one of her favorite pharmacy school experiences.

“We did health education for the kids and ran health fairs for the adults,” Smith said. “To work alongside them and to experience their love of pharmacy, as well as God, made me see the faculty members, students and professors in a different light.”

Houston Wyatt, another pharmacy graduate, organized a pharmacy team for the intramural games during each school year, a task he considered serving the rest of the school by allowing them time to relax.

“It’s a stress reliever,” Wyatt said. “When you have all (your classes and tests) going on, you need an excuse to take a break and let your mind rest.

In addition to expressing gratitude to the school’s faculty and staff, the graduates said they felt well-prepared for their futures in pharmacy.

“I’m at a school that speaks for itself,” Jones said. “What you see is what you get. I feel like this school in years to come will continue to stand out, and I’ll forever be proud to say that this is where I became a pharmacist.”

Darren Scott Awender receives his doctor of pharmacy diploma at spring graduation.