Knowledge


You know when you were a little girl and you had a dream job? If you could be anything in the world - what would you be? 

 I am currently on my way to having my dream job. I am in my last year as a Doctoral Candidate at Wingate School of Pharmacy. I can hardly believe it. I have worked so hard to get to this point in my academic career that I am just giddy with excitement in starting and completing my classes. 

Pharmacy was introduced to me around the 7th grade when my mother said to me one night at the dinner table, "Amanda - you love cooking, helping people, and science - have you ever thought about being a pharmacist?" That's when I started thinking about what a pharmacist did and if it could be in my future. I knew pharmacists were the ones who made the drugs my doctor prescribed and I knew pharmacies were on every street corner, but that was about it. I did a little research and realized that my skills and personality were right in line for being a pharmacist. I embarked on a journey through high school and college trying to fulfill the classes needed to attend pharmacy school. 

 Throughout my undergraduate career at Florida State University, I knew I wanted to for sure be in the health care field. But, to be honest, I was still a little shaky on the reason I wanted to be a pharmacist over the other health professions.  It wasn't until my first pharmacy interview during my senior year of college that my eyes opened to my role as a pharmacist. I arrived in Nashville, TN for an interview at a newly accredited pharmacy school. My mom picked me up from the airport and we proceeded to our hotel near the university. We unloaded our bags in our room and headed downstairs for a glass of wine and snacks in the lobby. We sat near older couple and a young man sitting alone at a few tables in the hotel bar. My mother and I began talking about how I prepared for my interview, if I was nervous, and ultimately why I wanted to be a pharmacist. The older couple nearby overheard the conversation and joined in by talking about how important their local pharmacist was to their community because of his dedication to patient care. I was immediately interested in finding out more on pharmacist patient care because that was something I was very passionate about. I started asking the couple questions concerning pharmacy when the young man in the corner asked me to come over. He told me to pull up a seat and looked me straight in the eye and said "You need to change the world of Pharmacy. Promise me this." My mouth dropped open. I had no idea who this young man was and he didn't know anything about me besides the conversation he heard at the surrounding tables. He told me that I needed to be a new age pharmacist and if I wanted to make a difference in the health care world I needed to find the missing link in medicine. 

The conversation with the young man sparked my imagination and curiosity in how I could personally make a difference in the world of pharmacy. That's when I decided that I wanted to be the new age pharmacist - focused on patient care and individualizing medicine. Taking a patients medical and family history, lifestyle, eating patterns, exercise routine, and medications and creating a prescription for life rather than drugs. 

I hope to explore the world of pharmacy more in the next four years at WUSOP and I can't wait to share with you all the amazing things a pharmacist can do. 


You can follow my journey through pharmacy school here



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