¶ … academic studies with a passion for the health sciences. In college, I tutored physics and mathematics in my spare time, and felt privileged to meet people from different backgrounds and to be able to help them understand the fundamentals behind different scientific problems. Yet months after entering college, my father suffered from a cervical disk disorder. Doctors were initially unable to accurately diagnose the problem, torn between the possibilities of a brain tumor, a spinal tumor, or multiple sclerosis, leaving me no choice but to begin working full-time in my family's restaurant in order to support my family. I found myself cooking, managing the restaurant, and also doing my studies. It was difficult to adjust to this schedule, but I was eventually able to cope by learning how to use my time as efficiently as possible, working night shifts regularly while still maintaining my academic focus.
Just as everything was getting better, I also got married but within six months the marriage ended in divorce. Divorce changed the route that I had planned for myself. Given the financial difficulties I had at that time I had no choice but to quit school for a few years but I was not willing to give up my dream. I worked for few years in different jobs and finally six years ago I found a job as pharmacist assistant in a pharmacy (Pharmaprix) in Montreal, Canada.
This was when my aspiration for pharmacy began. What was at first an unfamiliar environment allowed for ample opportunities to develop my social skills and deal with all manner of people on a personal basis. However, I also had a feeling of impotence knowing my own limited capacity to proffer genuine aid to clients. After talking...
I recognized that my first-hand experience would give me better
insight into this line of work. Therefore, I decided to increase my work hours at the pharmacy to get more first-hand exposure to the profession. I was promoted to chief pharmacist assistant.
What impressed me the most about pharmacy work was the manner in which the pharmacist took care of patients with attention and patience, making sure they were comfortable and constantly reassessing consultations and reviewing their histories to ensure maximum safety and quality of care. I fully understood how essential human interaction is to being an effective pharmacist. In the summer of 2009, I seized the opportunity to see another side of the pharmacy profession when I was invited to conduct research under Dr. Patrick Labonte. Dr. Labonte works on the
characterization of the Hepatitis C virus replication in INRS-Institute Armand Frappier. As I gained expertise in Dr.Lanonte's lab, I realized how essential research is to any profession but especially pharmacy, and how much work is spent behind the scenes to develop new technologies and
drugs from which we all profit. Seeing the job from both sides, inside and out, foreground and background, solidified my goal to study pharmacy.
Throughout
university, I volunteered in a variety of positions in both social and medical fields, the latter of which include the Hemodialysis departments of the Montreal General Hospital. During this time I benefited by interacting with patients and staff, helping me strengthen my interpersonal skills even more. I have learnt to become bolder and to manage the
stress of public speaking. I received a certificate in general
business at UCLA with the specific goal of improving my confidence in negotiations,
networking, and public speaking as well as to prepare me for possibly starting my own business. I am in a continuing quest of self-improvement, constantly re-assessing my convictions in order to be, as Gandhi put it, "the…
