Every day, students at Shenandoah University’s Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy strive to make a difference in the community and prepare for excellence as future pharmacists. For third-year pharmacy students Kaylyn Chandler and Joanna Lyon, experiences in and out of the classroom provide opportunities to strengthen their commitment to becoming valued leaders in the pharmacy profession.
Kaylyn Chandler recently received a special recognition for her services to the Free Medical Clinic of the Northern Shenandoah Valley. She interned at the clinic last summer and, since then, has volunteered her time in service to the organization. Based on feedback from the Free Medical Clinic pharmacy staff and other administrators, Chandler went “above and beyond” the call, offering many extra efforts at the clinic, including the publishing of the FMC newsletter.
“Her willingness to help the clinic and the patients we serve is very much appreciated,” said Free Medical Clinic (FMC) Director Vicki McClellan. “I’ve tried over the years with other volunteers to get our newsletter in the format that she accomplished — simple, easy to read, fun and informative. She is a great advocate and volunteer. We are blessed to have Kaylyn as a volunteer for the FMC.”
Another third-year pharmacy student, Joanna Lyon, received accolades for her academic and community service accomplishments. Lyon recently won the national American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) Patient Counseling Competition in Orlando, Florida. The competition begins on the local level as students compete to serve as the national representative from their school or college of pharmacy. Each local competition winner competes in a preliminary round at the APhA national annual meeting. The 10 highest scoring participants are then invited to the final round. Lyon competed against approximately 130 students from schools or colleges of pharmacy across the nation. She placed in the top 10 nationally for the past two years and won the competition this year.
Like Chandler and Lyon, students of the Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy and Shenandoah University remain committed to taking what they’ve learned in the classroom and applying it to real-world situations that enable them to bring positive changes to their communities.