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WEST LAFAYETTE — Hiring Hoosiers is RTV6's focus on linking you up with skills, resources, and jobs, and we love to find ways that education can take you into a career.
And Purdue University is working on getting your future pharmacist classroom to career-ready.
Students in the College of Pharmacy have the opportunity to work at the Purdue University Pharmacy and gain experience in the retail side of things.
For first-year pharmacy students like Natalie Kinstler, learning in a working pharmacy isn't something she thought she'd be doing fresh into pharmacy school.
"I felt like it is a really great experience for all the first-year professional students just to get their toes in the water. Get exposed to the common medications that we usually dispense," said Kinstler.
Clinical instructor Alan Farkas said they have some students who come into the college with no experience in a real working pharmacy, and being able to work here gives them confidence.
"They are so unsure and very nervous at the beginning of the semester, and by the time they are done, they know what they are doing; they're confident in interacting with patients, answering the phones, discussing medications," said Farkas.
It's not just first-year students who are getting to learn new things. As a fourth-year student, Casey Bernier gets to be the teacher and put her knowledge to the test.
"In order to teach anything you have to know it very well so that you can teach it to others and I'm very interested in teaching anyways so that's why this was a great rotations experience for me, but even those who aren't' interested in teaching this is such a like it gives me good feedback and helps me to know what I do know and what I don't know," said Bernier.
Farkas said he believes it's a rewarding experience for the soon to be graduates.
"They get a chance to mentor these younger students they are able to pull together everything they've learned over the last three years and explain it to someone else who's at the beginning stages," said Farkas.
Once students graduate from the College of Pharmacy, there are several avenues they can take — retail, research, and even teaching.
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