Hello everyone! Finally, we are DONE with the first semester of the second year in pharmacy school, supposedly the hardest semester! Wah hoo!!! Time to rest up for a few weeks, catch up on my life, work on some volunteer work with my church and youth group, and start my brainstorming for Pharmacy Day 2012! But first, I wanted to take a few moments to share my personal testimony with you guys.
A few people have asked me about the circumstances and the journey of how I got into pharmacy school. It was definitely a long journey filled with many blessings and miracles that lead me here and I wanted to share it with you guys: *Beware this entry might be a little bit lengthy 🙂
As a child, I’ve had a hunch that my future would consist of helping people. Throughout high school and early college years, many careers caught my interest. Perhaps my future would include being a Priest, a teacher, a nurse, or even a pharmacist. No matter what I chose, one consistent theme was present – I wanted a career that would allow me to have a positive impact on the lives of others.
During first few years in college, I took some time off to explore my vocational calling at two different seminaries. Those three years gave me the opportunity to visit with the elderly at nursing homes, participate in the March for Life and assist the seminary health team. Through those experiences, I had time to reflect about the possibility of a career in the health/medical field.
North Hennepin Community College
When I returned to Minnesota from the seminary, I was a bit lost and did not know where to go from here. I was falling behind on my college education, 3 years to be exact, since we had different requirements at the seminary and to be honest, I felt a little heartbroken from the attempts at the seminary. Nonetheless I went back to college, North Hennepin Community College, and started taking all the required prerequitesites to God knows where, but I kept on taking them. I was became interest once again in the health professions, in particularly the nursing field, since North Hennepin Community College nursing program was growing.
During that time, I also started to be involved with volunteering at my church through teaching Vietnamese & Catholic Catechism, helping out with the children’s choir and with our local youth group chapter of the Eucharistic Youth Society every weekend. It was during those volunteering times that I talked to other youth group leaders about my education journey and one of them, a University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy graduate, told me to apply for a pharmacy technician position at Walgreens.
Through her help, I was hired to work at a brand new pharmacy near my house. I had contemplated a career in pharmacy, but I did not foresee a permanent commitment to the field because I did not think I was smart enough and that I am way too behind on my education to get in and so I never really tried. To my surprise, however, I felt right at home.
Walgreens Pharmacy
My first night, I was introduced to challenges like insurance difficulties and hard to read scripts. I began the arduous task of learning a new sig language. I immediately recognized the need to ‘armor’ myself for the battle. I studied my sig codes, proper insurance handling, and became familiar with the most commonly filled prescriptions. After six months, I took the exam and became a certified pharmacy technician. Two months later, I was promoted to Senior Certified Pharmacy Technician, a position that is generally only afforded to employees with at least two years of employment. I immediately was entrusted with management of technicians, scheduling, training of new technicians, and even created an insurance help sheet for my entire district.
With that came a new boost of confidence and I told myself that I will try to get into pharmacy school. I took the PCAT in June of 2009 and applied to only one school, the University of Minnesota. Unfortunately I was declined from even an interview. I was quite disappointed but I knew that my application was not the best and I was determined to make it better within one year.
I applied to get into the Biochemistry & Biotechnology BS degree program with Moorehead State University at the North Hennepin Community College campus and continued my education journey towards my BA degree. During that time, I continued with all of my volunteering work at church and with the youth group on a Regional and National level. I worked hard to prepare my personal statement and application and asked classmates and friends that work in journalism to help edit. I was still not entirely confident since I was declined the previous year and so my hope was to just have an interview with the UofMN. I also applied to Wingate University, relatively new pharmacy school in NC, and Creighton in NE. I submitted my application early January, for those of you guys reading this is pretty late so learn from my experience and turn it in earlier. My sister also submitted her application in December. I was extremely happy when she got an interview with the UofMN. I remember praying that even if just one of us gets in, that is enough. So 3 weeks gone by and still I haven’t heard anything from the U. I was sad but I prayed that if it be the will of God, then that is okay.
I got an invitation to interview the first week of February. I was ecstatic! This was what I had hoped for this year and if I don’t get in, then I can gain some experience from this and get in next year after I finished my BS. Little did I know what God had in store for me.
My interview schedule
I went to the interview on March 5th. I was quite nervous but my sister, who had already gone to her interview in February, coached me on the process. This was quite comforting, yet I know every interviewer is different. I took some friend’s advice and also visited studentdoctor.net to prepare myself for the interview. The interview went just fine and I had an awesome interviewer, however, it is now March and the available seats are filling up fast. After interviewing at the U, I was curious why the other two schools did not call me and so I decided to call them instead. One turned me down and the other wanted me to retake the PCAT since it was not high enough for their standard? I was so surprised since I always thought that my score was okay since I got an interview with the University of Minnesota, which ranks number 3 nationally. I dug through all of my papers for my PCAT score and they were right, my PCAT ranking was pretty low, definitely lower than the average of the incoming class at that time. At the discovery of this news, my heart sank. I remembered swinging by Perpetual Adoration Chapel that night on my way to work and fell to my knees and prayed.
St. Vincent de Paul's Perpetual Adoration Chapel; the same view from the same spot I knelt as I prayed...
“God, I know that I probably will not be able to make it into pharmacy school this year. I know that my sister has been working very hard to get in so even if only one of us can get in, let it be her. I am fine with that. Please stay with me and give me comfort, strength, and perseverance to bypass one more rejection and keep on applying next year…” Those words always ring in my ear as I drive by St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church to this very day. But like I mentioned previously, God has a plan.
A few weeks later my sister got her acceptance letter and I got my wait list letter. I was placed on the ranked wait list with no numbers as they still have 2 more interview dates after mine. Still, I was quite happy with the outcome. On a Friday in April, I came home after classes and decided to check my email one more time before the weekend. I received an email from the University of Minnesota stating that I have been offered admission to the Duluth campus!!! I think I read that email at least 3 times and started to say, “Oh my….” to the rest of my family. I was in shock and wanted my family to confirm that it is a legit email, that it was addressed to me, that it’s from the College of Pharmacy and it was!!! Praise the Lord!! The whole family was so happy, we jumped around the house smiling and thanking God, and finally we bundled up and went to Mass that night to thank God for this amazing miracle. The both of us got in!!!
My acceptance letter!
Now the only negative was that I was accepted into the Duluth campus while my sister was accepted into the Twin Cities campus. While my main preference was Twin Cities, there were no more seats available. We would be in the same class, attending classes with each other via ITV (kind of like Skype) and would graduate together but we will be separated by campus. Though it was not ideally what we had hoped for, I was very happy about the outcome and did not ask for more but little did I know what God has planned for us. During the summer, I went up to Duluth and looked for housing and toured the College of Pharmacy up there. I found a very nice house with nice roommates about 6 blocks away from school. I was in the midst of signing the lease when a huge family event broke out. I was so lost and devastated by it. I did not know what to do and if I should proceed on with pharmacy school in the fall in Duluth. I am the oldest of the family and I felt that it was my duty to stay home and helped them cope and get through this heartbreak and so I submitted my Application for a Campus Transfer and declined the lease to the house. I knew that I did the right thing to fulfill my duty as the oldest brother but even if they accepted my campus transfer, it doesn’t mean that I will be able to go to pharmacy school in the Twin Cities unless a spot opens up. Though I was very sad about this uncertainty, I trusted that God has a plan for me. In the middle of July, I received a phone call from Sarah from the College of Pharmacy telling me that a spot had opened up in the Twin Cities. I remember running to the back of the pharmacy and fell to my knees and thanking God! I now have the opportunity to go to school in the Twin Cities, while staying at home to help my family, and get to share this Pharmacy school education journey with my sister! God has a plan for me to get into pharmacy school regardless of me having no degrees, I was one year away from my BS in Biochemistry, with a pretty good GPA, lower than average PCAT ranking, and no undergrad research or publication. He planned out other ways to help improve my application by working for Him at church, getting a wonderful pharmacy technician job and the promotion though church friends, and helping with the Eucharistic Youth Society and it is through these things that I gave complete credits of how I got into pharmacy school. In addition, I think the Admission Committee here at the University of Minnesota tries to find a well rounded person and not just based on book smart and high PCAT scores no bias of course 🙂 My sister, who is on the Admission Committee this year, told me that they look for a person that can endure the tough course load, who is committed to the profession, who will give back and contribute to help out the community, and who will be a great future pharmacists! I still can’t believe I am attending the 3rd best pharmacy school in the nation! God works in amazing ways! “Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.” Psalm 36:5.
I can hardly believe that was almost two years ago! We are now entering into the 4th semester of pharmacy school, the second half of our classroom pharmacy education and we are beyond excited to start school again in January. In the meantime, we will enjoy this nice break. Hope you enjoyed reading this testimony and for those of you guys who are unsure that you can get in or have been declined, keep on trying because you never know what God has planned for you 🙂
Best,
Phat
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My family with baby Jesus in our church, Christmas 2011.
Transpharmers 