Where Purpose Meets Profession

My aspirations to become a pharmacist all began with my cousin Chuck, Charles Augustus Canada. When I was in middle school, he graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. He worked for VA hospital as well as prn for CVS pharmacy. I was very impressed with the stories he told me about his day-to-day work. He told me that he initially wanted to be an engineer, but he discovered that the pharmacy profession was better aligned with what he liked to do.  I had always expressed interest in becoming a pharmacist like my cousin Chuck; but like many other young people, I didn’t stay focused on my goal. For a long time the only pharmacy school was at the University of Kentucky. When Sullivan University began to create their own pharmacy school in Louisville, Chuck told me about it. “You know they are making a new pharmacy school at Sullivan?” I was surprised but not very interested. By this time, I was 27 years old and  I had just gotten a decent job at the local health insurance company so I wasn’t in a rush to switch back to student mode. “Don’t give up on your dream” he told me. Those words just stuck with me…always. To sum it up, I went back to school a few years later to complete my pre-requisites for pharmacy school. I was a non-traditional student, and a single mom by then. I was more focused and had my 18 month old twins as motivation. I graduated cum laude in 2013. Chuck was always a visit or phone call away for guidance and to help answer questions. He made sure I never gave up on my dream.