Hello everyone, welcome back! I hope you’ve all had a chance to rest and re-charge over winter break, and are ready to take on the new year like a boss.

So, this is kind of crazy to think about… after TWENTY years of school (beginning with kindergarten in 1998), I am now in my very last semester of classes ever. I’m finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Although much of it was spent riding the struggle bus, the last two decades also brought me friendships, memories, and an incredible amount of learning (both book and street smarts!). With that said, I intend to really take advantage of these next four months because come May, I’ll be off on rotations. And a year from then, I’ll be walking across the stage for the final time and starting the next chapter of my life.

This semester, in addition to five required courses, I’m taking two electives that I’m really excited about – “Pharmacotherapy of the Critically Ill Patient” and “Case-Based Management of Infectious Disease”. Both of these courses, while extremely useful for students interested in clinical pharmacy, are also notoriously difficult. I am fearful to say the least. But it’s my last semester and YOLO, right? Besides classes, much of my time will be spent on data collection for a research project that I started last spring. The project had a bit of a slow start, but the proposal, I am happy to say, has finally been submitted for approval by the University of Maryland’s Institutional Review Board. More about this project in a future post 🙂

I’m also looking forward to working on a few big events this semester. One of them is a collaboration between the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP) and USG’s Student Council to host an Out of the Darkness Walk here on campus. Out of the Darkness Walks, which are held throughout the country, help raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Every day, more than 100 Americans take their own life. AFSP’s mission includes funding scientific research for suicide prevention and providing programs for both survivors of suicide loss and those at risk. If you’re interested in getting involved with the planning process, please let me know!

This will be quite the busy last semester indeed, but I’m doing what I love and wouldn’t have it any other way.