This page serves as a reference for members who are unable to attend meetings

October 22nd, 2009

Pharmacist Christina Chipolle from the Community University Health Care Center talked about what she does as a patient care pharmacist. She works with many different ethnic groups and often uses the aid of interpreters when talking with her patients. She goes over everything from medications to insurance policies with the patients she sees and answers any of their concerns or questions.

October 8th, 2009

A student panel of five University of Minnesota Pharmacy School Students came in and talked about life as a pharmacy student. They shared their stories and answered many questions from the audience ranging from how they manage their course load to what activities they were involved in as an undergraduate.

September 24th, 2009

Peter Haeg and Sara Lofstrom spoke about the application process to Pharmacy School and what criteria the University of Minnesota is looking for from it's applicants. There was a brief presentation from members Pete, Emily, and Caitlin who participated in the club's summer volunteer trip to Nicaragua.

September 10th, 2009

The first meeting of the 2009-2010 school year was spent eating pizza, getting to know other members, and meeting Peter and Sara, the Pre-Pharmacy Club Adivors. Also Brittney Alms the student liaison from Minnesota Pharmacy Student Alliance informed us about MPSA and how to join. If interested in MPSA or if you have any questions for Brittney her e-mail address is almsx007@umn.edu. There was also a brief speaker from Kaplan who talked about the PCAT practice course they offer. After the meeting a few members participated in painting the bridge.

April 23rd, 2009
The Pre-Pharmacy Club held officer elections today for the next year's board. During the voting count, Sam Lee, a 4th year pharmacy student at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy answered any questions that the members had about pharmacy school, the application process, and what an applicant should do in order to distinguish themselve from other applicants. It was a long and rewarding election process. The new 2009-2010 Pre-Pharmacy Executive Board are:

President - Tara Dammer
Vice President - Pete Inveen
Secretary/Webmaster - Emily Mattson
Treasurer - Torie Grover
Advertising/Social Chair - Jenna Johnson
Volunteer Coordinator - Joe VonBank
Fundraising Coordinator –Caitlin Wilke

Congratulations to everyone for being elected and for those who ran for a position! It was definitely hard to vote since everyone who ran would have done a great job. Again, congratulations to the new board and remember, make the 2009-2010 year better than the previous.

April 09th, 2009
A volunteer from the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) was the special guest speaker of the week. Early on, he explained to the club how the center was established. Surprisely, the clinic for the Center for Victim of Torture is located right here on the U of M Twin-Cities Campus at the intersection of Fulton and Oak Street. The clinic here on our campus is the third oldest in the nation with over 50 clinics established around the nation. SInce 1985, the CVT has provided multidisciplinary healing services to torture victims worldwide. At their clinic, they provide the necessary care for victims free of charge. Their priority is to heal emotional wounds, provide medical care for physical wounds, and help their patients regain their independence and human dignity. In addition, the CVT has been an advocate to end torture worldwide.

March 26th, 2009
The Pre-Pharmacy's Club guest speaker of the day was Shin, a pharmacist who works at the poison control center at Hennepin County Medical Center. She explained to the club the concept of toxicology and the importance of the kind of work that she does. A day at her work consists of answering concerned phone calls from parents who may have accidently given the wrong dose of medication to their infant, or receiving phone calls from medical doctors who have questions regarding certain drug overdoses and asks for her recommendation on how to manage the case. Shin shared to the club that her job is very rewarding and interesting because every phone call is a different case and requires different management.

March 12th, 2009
Kaplan visited with one of the summer PCAT instructors (now dental student) Matt Preis. They answered questions people had about the PCAT exam and talked about the course that they offer to prepare for the exam. At the end of the meeting they gave out a practice worksheet with 5 questions that could be seen on the exam and talked about how to approach these questions. If you are interested in learning more about the course they offer or would like to see these practice questions feel free to contact Laura for more info. Also, at the end of the meeting we watched a short video on Nicaragua.

February 26th: MEETING CANCELED

February 12th, 2009
Dr. Straka from the U of M College of Pharmacy was our guest speaker for the week. He introduced the concept of conducting research in the field of pharmacy. His research interest is cardiovascular therapeutics including pharmacogenetics, pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamics, and aspects of metabolism which contribute to or predict response. In addition, there are pharmacy research that focus on determining inter-ethnic differences in drug metabolism. If we can determine how different ethnic groups response to a certain drug, then new drug design can be geared towards that specific group in order to improve their health.

January 29th, 2009
Shannon Reidt, a Pharm.D. graduate of the U of M College of Pharmacy was the guest speaker for the day. She graduated with a Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree along with her Pharm.D.. Shannon introduced herself and talked about her interest in pharmacy and the many different possibilities that a student of the U of M College of Pharmacy can do. She was able to get support from many people when she created her own pharmaceutical care program and method of practice. Shannon's program, allows her to travel to patients home and pratice Medication Therapy Management. She believes that this method of practice allows her to connect with her patients better which would help with the patient's adherance to the treatment plan. Furthermore, she talked to the Club about her residency experience and would highly recommend pharmacy students to participate in residency programs.

December 4th, 2008
Today's guest speaker was a pharmacist who worked for a long term care pharmacy called Merwin Long Term Care. He started with a history about himself and how he became interested in pharmacy from living on a farm. He then talked about after becoming a pharmacist, he owned a small community pharmacy where he worked for many years. His one regret about owning his own pharmacy was having to work so many hours. Often times, he would have to work over 60 hours a week since small community pharmacys most of the time are limited to a single pharmacist. He then transitioned to long term care since he wanted to experience a different aspect of the pharmacy field.

November 20th, 2008
The Pre-Pharmacy Club invited Dr. Linda Strand, a pioneer from the U of M College of Pharmacy, to come speak about Pharmaceutical Care, a type of pharmacy practice that she developed and practice. The pharmacy profession is changing. Patient care and medication management are two very important concepts that have become very significant in the pharmacy profession. Dr. Strand spoke about this type of practice and was opened to questions from the audience.

November 6th, 2008
The Pre-Pharmacy Club went to the University of Minnesota Fairview Hospital and toured their inpatient pharmacy. The day started out with one of the resident pharmacy student, who works in the inpatient pharmacy, answering many of our member's questions about her thoughts on the application process of pharmacy school. She gave many helpful pointers. The first hour of the meeting consisted of Q & A, and then the club was given a tour of the pharmacy.

October 23rd, 2008
With only 2 nuclear pharmacys in the state of Minnesota and less than 20 nuclear pharmacists employed here, we were lucky to have a nuclear pharmacist as this weeks speaker. A University of Minnesota Alumni talked about an average day, rather an average night preparing F19, an isotope used for imaging and identification of cancerous tumours. Preparation of a 50 gram vial of isotope requires anywhere from 60 to 90 pounds worth of lead shielding in order to be safely shipped to area hospitals! F19 has a half life of about 110 minutes and therefore requires preparation to take place at night, so by mid day the product has gone through enough half lifes to be safely injected within a patient.

October 09th, 2008
The Pre-Pharmacy Club invited a student panel from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. They shared many of their experiences and journey in order to get into pharmacy school. All seven members of the panel were previous members of the Pre-Pharmacy Club. Each student introduced themselves then took questions from the audience.

September 25th, 2008
Peter Haeg who is an advisor for the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy was the guest speaker of the day. He talked about the admissions process and answered many questions from the audience. Overall, it was a very informative session. If you have any further questions, feel free to come to our meetings and ask anyone of the executive board members.

September 11th, 2008
The club's first meeting this fall, consisted of doing icebreakers and getting to know all the new members of the club.

May 1st ,2008
Our end of the year picnic was held at Van Cleve Park.

April 17th, 2008
Peter Haeg, an advisor for the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, performed an exercise with the club that focused on desirable qualities for a practicing pharmacist, and therefore qualities that should be showcased in one’s application. Some of these qualities included attention to detail, dedication, responsibility, good communication skills, knowledgeable, trustworthy, respectful to diversity, ethical, patient, organized, leadership, and ability to multitask.

The 2008-2009 executive board was also elected. Congratulations to Laura Kloeckl (President), Larren Collins (Vice President), Brittany Hogan (Treasurer), Jesse Peterson and Quang Cao (Secretary/Webmasters), Trisha Reindl (Speaker/PCAT Coordinator), Awale Mohamed (Volunteer Coordinator), Chris Boreen ( Fundraising Coordinator), and Pete Inveen (Advertising/Social Chair.)

April 3rd, 2008
Veterinary Pharmacy.

March 6th, 2008
Bruce Lohr, a critical care pharmacist at Fairview spoke to the club. Lohr works in Fairview’s adult ICU. His unit has approximately 30 beds, filled primarily with transplant patients. Lohr described a typical workday including the rounds he makes with his team. The team is composed of one attending physician, one fellow, one intern, one medical student, and one pharmacist. Lohr decribed his duty on the team as insuring the “5 Rs” are being followed for each patient: Right drug, right dose, right route, right frequency, and right patient.

February 21st, 2008
Dan B., a pharmacist at Merwin Long Term Care Pharmacy spoke to us about his position as a long term care pharmacist. Long term care provides prescriptions to various nursing homes and group homes.

February 7th, 2008
Dave C., a pharmacist at Padock Labs spoke at the meeting. He told us about his previous role in retail pharmacy. He then described his current role in industrial pharmacy at Padock Labs. Padock Labs is a producer of generic pharmaceuticals and is located in Minnesota.

Also, congratulations to Anthony T., the fall winner of the free Kaplan class. Another free class will be given away in a drawing this spring. Every event you participate in (excluding meetings) puts your name in the drawing once.

January 24th, 2008
A student panel composed of students from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy was present at the meeting. They answered questions about the application process, interviewing, and first year challenges. They also offered advice to the pre-pharmacy students. Studentdotor.net was suggested as a good website for those in the process of applying to pharmacy school. It offers a discussion board on which students in the process of applying can help one another by answering each others questions about interviewing, schools, etc.

All panel members welcome you to email them any additional questions you may have. Their names and email addresses are as follows:

Jared: ande7977@umn.edu
Nick: schut088@umn.edu
ajbakken@gmail.com
Sam: leex1487@gmail.com
George: konst006@umn.edu
Kait: colt0023@umn.edu
Chris: misf0004@umn.edu

December 6, 2007
Dr. Amy Pittenger spoke to the club about her roles in clinical pharmacy.

A presentation on the many undergraduate courses offered by the College of Pharmacy was given. Club members then offered many favorable views on the undergraduate courses offered by the College of Pharmacy that they had taken the past. For more information on these courses, visit courses.pharmacy.umn.edu.

An election for the volunteer coordinator position was also held. Congratulations, to our new volunteer coordinator, Larren!

November 8, 2007
A tour of the University’s Medical Center inpatient pharmacy was taken.

October 25, 2007
Dr. Linda Strand from the U of M’s College of Pharmacy spoke about the development and practice of Pharmaceutical Care. After her talk, she welcomed member’s questions and views on the topic.

October 11, 2007
Peter Haeg, an advisor at the University of Minnesota college of pharmacy, gave a presentation on applying to pharmacy school. He also answered member’s questions about the application essays and interview. For more information, contact a pre-pharmacy advisor at 612-624-9490 or view the College of Pharmacy’s Webpage (www.pharmacy.umn.edu).

A social activity for the club was also planned. (Bowling in Goldy’s Gameroom on Thursday, October 18 at 4 pm.)

September 27, 2007:
A student panel composed of current pharmacy students answered member’s questions about pharmacy school and how to get there.

September 13th, 2007
To kick off the new school year, the club painted our panel on the bridge on September 12th.

At the meeting, representative from Kaplan came in for a presentation of the PCAT. They discussed the structure of the test, scoring of the test, and presented practice questions from each section of the exam. PCAT practice tests will be offered on Wednesday, October 17th at 5:30 pm and Saturday, October 20th at 10:30 am. Contact Kaplan for more information on attending these practice exams.

Also, club members who partook in the Nicaragua Mission trip this summer shared their experiences. A video with highlights from the trip was shown as well.

February 8th, 2007

At this meeting, we heard from Tiffany Reinitz, who graduated from the U of M College of Pharmacy and is currently in a residency program in the ICU at Fairview. She spoke a lot about her clinical experience there, including her typical day of checking labs, doing rounds with physicians and nurses, and giving recommendations on her patients’ drug therapy. She also spoke about the duties of other pharmacists such as dispensing and order entry. She answered a lot of questions about her opinions on pharmaceutical care, the future and effectiveness of clinical pharmacists. Tiffany talked about her experiences in different pharmacy settings through the time she has spent working and doing rotations, and she told us some of the things she liked and disliked about the various positions she has held. She offered her e-mail address and phone number to us if anyone is interested in contacting her with questions or if you would like to shadow her. She can be reached at treinit1@fairview.org or 612-703-9563.

January 25th 2007

At this meeting, we listened to two representatives from Kaplan talk about the PCAT, its format, and some of the major changes in content and scoring. There are six sections of the PCAT: verbal, biology, reading, quantitative, chemistry, and essay. There will be approximately 48 questions in each of the first five categories, and two essays. For only one essay, you will receive scores based on grammar as well as the quality of your solution, while the other essay has no effect on score. Some major changes in content are a greater emphasis on genetics and calculus, but geometry will not be on the test. The PCAT will now be offered four times each year; online registration costs $105, paper is $140, and late registration fees are $50. Some advice is to practice reasoning skills, relax, register and study early, take practice tests, identify weaknesses, and study in groups of people who have different strengths and weaknesses. For more information, visit the website at pcatweb.info, or e-mail Kristin from Kaplan at Kristin.anderson@kaplan.com. We also learned about some of the pharmacy related courses designed for undergraduate students. There are a lot of interesting classes available including, Orientation to Pharmacy, Health Sciences Terminology, Common Prescription Drugs and Diseases, and Fundamentals of Pharmacotherapy. For more information, visit the website http://courses.pharmacy.umn.edu/. These would all be really helpful if you want to learn more about the field of pharmacy.

November 9th, 2006

At this meeting we heard from a current Pharmacy student who was representing MPSA, the Minnesota Pharmacy Student Alliance. MPSA is a student run organization that, among other things, gets involved in community projects such as Operation Immunization, Operation Diabetes, and Heartburn Awareness. They hold weekly meetings every Thursday at lunchtime, where they often invite unique speakers to talk about various aspects of pharmacy. There are a lot of opportunities for pre-pharmacy students to get involved, which is a great way to begin networking with people in the pharmacy field and to differentiate yourself from other pharmacy school applicants. Our second speaker, Richard Pham, talked about alternative careers in pharmacy such as nuclear pharmacy, home health, nursing home, and hospice. He has had experience with many different careers within the pharmaceutical field, and he was able to present pros and cons of several of them. He stressed the importance of finding the right job for you, one that makes you happy and allows you to balance realism with idealism. Dr. Pham went on to talk about and give advice for the admissions process. Diversity is strongly encouraged, find ways to set yourself apart. Have a plan for the future, or at least an idea of the options available. Research the schools’ strengths, weaknesses, and philosophies and make sure you are choosing the right school for your career and educational goals.

October 26th, 2006

At this meeting, we got into small groups to conduct mock interviews. We visited a website where students who have had real interviews post comments and feedback on their experiences to help their peers. The address is www.studentdoctor.net. We found some of the most common interview questions and tried to come up with good answers for them before sharing and discussing them with everyone else. We also discussed some of the upcoming club events. On Wednesday, November 15, we will be putting on a food drive/ bake sale from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM at Coffman Union and Weaver-Densford Hall. The food donations, along with half of the money raised from the bake sale, will go to Community Emergency Services (a local food shelf); the other half of the money will go toward next summer’s Nicaragua trip. We need to have a minimum of two people at each table at all times. We need a lot of volunteers to make this day a success! Please help out by providing baked goods, (preferably home baked), non-perishable food items, and your time! We are hoping to have a raffle in which customers who purchase baked goods will be entered to win a quilt. On Friday December 8 (tentative date) from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, we will hold another bake sale, most likely in the same locations. These funds will go to the Nicaragua trip. We would like to have a slide show of pictures from Dr. Lockwood’s previous trips to Nicaragua at our bake sales and food drive so people can see what a great cause this is. If anyone has a laptop that they would be willing to share for this event, please let an officer know. Finally, Kait mentioned arranging an activity such as serving food to people at the Dorothy Day Center (or a similar establishment) sometime before Thanksgiving. All of these events are great volunteer opportunities!

October 12th, 2006

At this meeting, we welcomed a panel of current first and second year pharmacy students. They spoke about their individual experiences with their undergraduate years, the application process, and their time in school so far. They answered a variety of questions that we had. Everyone encouraged us to try to get involved in a lot of different activities as an undergrad, including getting pharmacy experience by working or job shadowing in different areas. They all said they were happy to have chosen the U of M, especially for its emphasis on pharmaceutical care; direct patient contact starts right away in the first year! They all seemed to agree that the first year of pharmacy school is very similar to the undergraduate science curriculum that we all go through. They advised us to get involved in a lot of extra-curricular activities during that year since the course load is probably the lightest. Some of the students also said if they could go back, they would take biochemistry and physiology along with the prerequisites to prepare themselves for the first year curriculum. The second year sounds like it is most strenuous because of its full, difficult course load. They said there are four to five exams weekly, and it is relevant information that you will be using in your future career. This is not supposed to scare you away though—everyone gets through it! The students were kind enough to offer to answer any further questions if you have them. Just contact one of the club officers and we can get an e-mail address for you!

September 28th, 2006

Dr. Scott came and spoke to us about interviews and personal statements. She had a lot of great information and advice for all of us. The interview lasts about 30 to 40 minutes; it is a one-on-one exchange with a faculty member. The interviewer has access to your essays, work and volunteer experience, and which schools you have attended, they cannot, however, see your grades or test scores; he/ she is not making a decision regarding admission. Some of the most important advice Dr. Scott gave us was to relax and be comfortable. Know your goals; explain why and how you plan to pursue your place in pharmacy. Also, ask your interviewer questions! You want to be sure that the U of M is the best fit for you. As an undergrad, try to be well-rounded; get involved in extra-curricular activities and explore your interests. Find out what you want to do and why. Appropriate, professional dress is important—you should wear a business suit. The personal statement is an opportunity to share your passion for pharmacy; it is important to tell your story; why do you want to be a pharmacist and how did you make your decision to pursue this career? Editing is key! Have some people who know you really well read it; ask them if it sounds like you, do they find any typos? It may also be useful to have someone who doesn’t know you very well read it; find out their impressions, would they trust you as their own pharmacist? This essay gives you a chance to let your voice be heard and make yourself stand out, but it needs to sound like you! Don’t try to over-dramatize or exaggerate your story. Dr. Scott was really helpful in preparing us for the application and interview process. If you have any further questions for her, she gave us her e-mail address and said she would be happy to help! Contact her at doneka@umn.edu.

September 14th, 2006

Nicaragua presentation. AphA and MPSA information.