Getting Involved
My sophomore year I was the editor of the yearbook here at Saint Leo. It was a great experience, and gave me an awesome outlet for all of my pent-up creative energies. I was also involved in a few clubs and organizations, and was really good friends with a few students who were affiliated with Residence Life. I strongly recommend being involved on campus. It’s fun, community service makes you feel great, and you really make your life-long friends outside of the classroom.
But don’t rule out going off campus! I think one of my best decisions yet was to get a job off-campus. My career aspirations are to become a Pharmacist, and having a part time job off-campus in a pharmacy has so many benefits for me beyond the little bit of money that magically gets deposited in my checking account every Friday morning. Within the world of Pharmacy, Technicians (those of us who are not Pharmacists and do not have our Pharm. D. yet) make up a majority of pharmacy staff. Duties assigned to Pharmacy Technicians are the simpler things that don’t require a doctorate to perform and have little legal liability, but make up the bulk of the work that is required to make a pharmacy run efficiently. Though those duties are relatively simple and can be done with little to no mental effort, there is a huge opportunity for the aspiring pre-pharmacy student to gain a wealth of knowledge and practical experience before even applying to pharmacy school.
Think about it. How many other industries can you get PAID to work side-by-side with experts in the field? Working in a pharmacy for a couple years is like being handed a stack of pharmacology text books, and being paid to read them. And then when you’re finished, if you’re interested and make the right connections, some pharmacists are nice enough to write you letters of recommendation and help you get into Pharmacy school! My company is a huge proponent of higher education. For technicians, there is an optional national certification (CPhT) that will become mandatory in Florida in 2011. But now, and for the last few years my company has offered to pay for the training, the fairly expensive exam, and even offer raises to technicians who take and pass the exam. Board certification is a great credential to have not only for the immediate benefits within the pharmacy, but also looks great on a resume and shows pharmacy schools just how serious you are about the industry.
But the most important thing that I think an off-campus job offers is a reality check. Attending a private University, we live in sort of a bubble. Our standard of living is pretty nice, food is always available, and on our campus specifically there is just a general sense of positivity. Working off campus has shown me that life is only what you make of it, and you can’t just expect things to work out just because you will them to. My store specifically is in a relatively impoverished neighborhood where the vast majority of our patients receive government assistance. Everyday that I go to work I’m reminded just how lucky I am, and it motivates me to try even harder to be academically successful because there are people in this world who would give nearly anything to be in my shoes.
Reality is a scary place, but I highly recommend stepping out of your comfort zone and spending a few hours ever week off campus. Even if you don’t need the money at all, just experience the real world. It makes the Saint Leo bubble an even rosier place to be.
