Eric Pham

I knew throughout high school that I was interested in a role in health care, and there is such flexibility with a Pharm.D. degree. After shadowing local hospital pharmacists, I have gravitated towards the role of Clinical Pharmacy Specialists with my current interests in critical care and pediatric pharmacy.

When I first came for my campus visit, I felt like this is where I wanted to spend the next seven years of my education. The Early Entry pharmacy program offered an opportunity that I could not turn down with the mentorship and the ability to plug into the School of Pharmacy as an undergraduate student. I have met some of my best friends both within and outside of pharmacy. 

Through my interest in national pharmacy associations and encouragement from some faculty members, I found that Phi Lambda Sigma was an organization that aligned with some of my future professional goals. After my recent summer internship, the opportunity to network with pharmacy professionals and student leaders from other institutions was one I knew I could grow through professionally.

In this role, I will serve as a point-of-contact between the Phi Lambda Sigma National Executive Committee and Region C chapters (which includes the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana). The chapter presidents and I will share and strategize to make their chapters thrive to Phi Lambda Sigma standards for their members.

I have enjoyed connecting with the other regional liaisons. We are all leaders at our respective institutions and knowing that we could be future colleagues in the pharmacy profession makes it that much more enjoyable. We have our monthly meetings and it has been awesome to see the impacts that we are making in our communities and for our next steps in life, such as postgraduate training or interview preparation for jobs. 

My favorite class is Multisystem Complex Patient Care, as we are able to apply our clinical knowledge in a holistic view to treat patients as we will in the near future. I feel like this course is preparing us to be more efficient looking up treatment guidelines and drug information sources for our APPEs during our fourth year.

I have enjoyed having the large academic medical center environment and now working as a pharmacy intern at Children’s of Mississippi.

Seek and seize those opportunities that will set you up for success in the area you are most interested in. You may temporarily feel uncomfortable, but it will be worth it to know how you can best succeed, and when you finish a challenging task, you could come out feeling that you can accomplish anything.   

One of the accomplishments that I am most proud of is my work with the vaccination efforts at the University of Mississippi. As Operation Immunization chair of the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP), I was able to have a significant role in the logistics, training and volunteer recruitment for the flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.

I could go for a nice medium-rare steak with a baked potato and grilled asparagus.