Pharmacy Student Chosen as Walmart Scholar

AACP2015-1Sara Thompson, a fourth year Pharmacy student at Belmont University, was recently chosen as a Walmart Scholar by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP).   The program recognizes select students and their faculty mentors in an effort to strengthen the recipient’s skills and commitment to a career in academic pharmacy.   Dr. Edgar Diaz-Cruz, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy, serves as Thompson’s mentor.

In speaking of Thompson, Dr. Diaz-Cruz said, “It is refreshing to see such maturity , determination, and passion for academic pharmacy and patient education in a pharmacy student.”  Thompson is interested in medical Spanish and health disparities as experienced in the Hispanic community.  After pharmacy school, she plans to pursue a residency with a teaching certificate program and has a career goal to join academia as a faculty member in pharmacy practice.

The Scholar program provides scholarships to student-faculty pairs to attend the AACP annual meeting and Teachers Seminar which was recently held in National Harbor, Maryland.

DNP Student Teaches Healthcare in Haiti as Frist Global Health Fellow

Quigley1When doctorate of nursing practice student Jennifer Quigley realized she would be the first Belmont recipient of the Frist Global Health Fellowship, she said she was eager to use her passion for global health to implement a plan for teaching health care providers in Cap-Haitien, Haiti a modern method of natural family planning. Her trip was born of a partnership between Belmont’s College of Health Sciences and Nursing and the organization Hope Through Healing Hands, which was founded by Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D.

Although the goal of the trip was to assist the Haitian people, Quigley was quick to say the trip was life-changing for her, as well. “I learned so much more from the Haitian people than they learned from me. I have never seen a more joyous people, full of life and love, and each was eager to show me love. Though they did not have much, I never went hungry, and I always had water. They joyfully give, even if they have so little to start with,” she said. “I also had the opportunity to deliver a baby, with only one other nurse, no drugs and not sterile equipment — only a clean room and the two of us. It was an experience I will hold with me for the rest of my life.” Continue reading