Month: September 2018

Columbus in the Fall

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Hi friends!

One of the things that I love most about about being at Ohio State is Buckeye football. There is nothing better than watching the Buckeyes play in The Horseshoe! The sound of the crowd is electrifying and captivating as the scarlet and grey barrel down the field. Friends and family come together to tailgate, eat and celebrate the Buckeyes along the Olentangy River. You can tell fall is in the air, and OSU football is in full swing!

Fall is my favorite season, and even if football isn’t your cup of tea, there is plenty to do in Columbus as the leaves become a vibrant sea of red and orange amidst the crisp air.

  • Wander down the rows of apple trees at Cherry Hawk Farm Apple Orchard – Marysville or Lynd Fruit Farm. Pick some apples to eat or to bake with!
  • Enjoy delicious coffee at Stauf’s Coffee Roasters in German Village, one of my guilty pleasures!
  • Read a book – I’m currently reading The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur, as well as The Black Book by James Patterson
  • Try out a new recipe – I love to make homemade soups and chili when the weather becomes chilly.
  • Carve a pumpkin with friends and watch scary movies!
  • Take a long bike ride through one of the many metro parks in Columbus

Whatever you decide – make sure to take time for yourself, Buckeyes!

-Ashley

Finding Your Home in Columbus

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Posted on behalf of Samra Nageye

Hello!

Moving to a new city or state can be hectic without even considering the struggles of apartment hunting. A culture shock is one thing almost all newcomers face as they try to navigate through the new place they’ll call home. Relocating is no small task whether you’re a businessman, a small family, or college student. There is a lot of uncertainties when moving to a new city, and one of the biggest challenges you may face will be searching for a new place to live. Whether you left your apartment search until the last moment, or you kind of established your living situation before your move, finding the apartment that’s the best fit for you is an inevitable challenge. Do you want to live near campus, or further away in a more eccentric and quiet neighborhood? As an Ohio State student, there are many living selections from you to choose from.

Colony Square
Just minutes from the Ohio State University campus, Colony Square apartments are a very affordable and convenient option for students and all people. Why is this a great option? Well, although these living quarters are off campus, it is conveniently located just a few minutes from the Ohio State University campus, downtown, theaters, and other amenities. Its proximity to campus puts it at great advantage. With Ohio’s unpredictable weather, if your car were to ever break down, you can still rely on routine public transport at your discard. I live there myself, and I can tell you, service and convenience of Colony Square is almost unbeatable.

University Village
This apartment complex is a housing option for Ohio State University students. Just a 3-minute drive from campus, you are surrounding by the Buckeye spirit of community and joy echoed in the halls of these apartments. You will not feel the sense of belonging anywhere else. University Village has been around since the 1950’s servicing students of Ohio State University, as well as neighboring schools. It is the ideal off-campus location that offers seven shuttle buses that transports students to and from campus. University Village offers studio floor plans as well as 1-3 bedroom apartments compact with a Resident Life Center and great community features such as outdoor pools and picnic areas.

You could always opt for the traditional apartment route. Columbus is a great city that offers affordable apartments and houses for rent. You are never too far from public transportation, great restaurants, and of course, the great sites that the wonderful city has to offer.

Ways to be active on campus

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Hello Everyone! My name is Jamie and I’m a P2 and Diversity Ambassador for the College of Pharmacy. I’m from Sandusky Ohio, The Roller Coaster Capital of the World! I did my undergrad in psychology here at OSU and I’m currently and intern at Riverside Hospital. I really love walking around campus and exploring the food scene around Columbus.

Since it is early Fall Semester, I wanted to share some ways to be involved on campus outside of the College of Pharmacy. One of the best things about being a Buckeye is the endless opportunities we have to be active and involved within the campus community, Columbus, and beyond.

One of my favorite things to do is Buck-I Serve. Buck-I- serve is our alternative break trip here at OSU. Trips are offered during winter, spring and summer break. Trip destinations include New York, Florida, Georgia, Costa Rica and more. The purpose of these trips is to visit an underserved community and pay it forward during break. Depending on the destination, trip activities can include volunteering at soup kitchens, tutoring youth, cleaning aquatic preserves, and habitat for humanity. I have done buck-I serve multiple times and its always a lot of fun, it’s a way to meet new people and help those in need. The cool thing is, while these trips do cost money for undergrad, they don’t for professional students. As a Pharm D student you are eligible to apply as an Advisor, which makes the trip and travel expenses free. This is a leadership role, where you can use your leadership skills to help guide the trip and make sure everything runs smoothly. I highly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity as a professional student.

Another way to be involved is with OUAB grad/professional. OUAB (Ohio Union Activities Board) is a student org on campus that hosts free events for current students. Some of these events include free movie nights and therapy dogs during finals week. The grad/professional chapter specifically aims to enhance the personal growth of grad/prof students and help us reach our goals. They host events such as CV reviews, group fitness classes, leadership workshops, finance management courses, and much more. Attending these events is a way to meet other professional students on campus and a great way to take advantage of the resources they offer. There’s also leadership positions available, so you can play a part in planning these great events.

Lastly, other ways to be involved are the volunteer days held on campus. Two examples are Community Commitment and MLK Day. For these events you can apply online to be a site leader. The duties are to lead a small group of students to a volunteer site where you will simply volunteer for the day. I have been assigned to food banks, nursing homes, and community gardens for these events. It a fun way to give back to the community and meet new people. At the end of the day, as the leader you will lead your group in a reflection, just discussing what you learned and sharing any thoughts from the activity.

So now that you have some ideas, I really hope this encourages you to get active and involved here on campus. Whether it be pharmacy organizations or any of the ones listed above, its important to find what you’re passionate about and take advantage of the great resources we have available here at OSU. Go Bucks!

Staying on top of your studies while still having fun!

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Hello Everyone! My name is Rebekah Thomas, and I am a P2 and pharmacy ambassador for the College of Pharmacy! I am originally from Pittsburgh, and I attended Slippery Rock University for my undergraduate degree. Outside of class, my favorite things to do are walk around the park of roses, get Condados tacos, and ride the bird scooters with my friend!

With school in full swing, I just wanted to share some of the planning and organizational tips I collected through my first year at the college. I used to have this ability to remember due dates and stay on top of my tasks in high school and undergrad, but that didn’t really work well for me in my first year of school. Pharmacy school definitely keeps you busy, and it can get overwhelming trying to remember all of the events, due dates, and project deadlines from straight memory. I connected with my peers and mentors within the college to gain some tips to how to better organize my time for school and for activities.

SO here is my approach to staying organized while in pharmacy school:

  1. Get a planner or use a calendar. I swear your life will be much better organized if you can see what is coming up.
  2. The syllabus is your best friend. The first thing I do is write down all of the assignments, quizzes, tests, and other important dates in the monthly section of my planner. These dates can be tentative but at least they are there so you can plan ahead! I even color coordinate by classes and will highlight the test dates.
  3. If you work put the dates and times in this section when ever you get your schedule!
  4. Now that you have a good idea when you have things do and when your exams are, look at the days where you may have off or free. This will sound weird but pencil in some time for yourself! The first thing students tend to forget is to include time for them self because they become so overwhelmed with school. It is very important for your well-being to add this time for yourself. By penciling it in your planner you can plan around it to ensure you get the “me” time that you need!
  5. You now have a good idea of what your month is going to look like. It is going to look like a lot but do not worry because now you can plan out when and how you will accomplish the task and turn it in on time!
  6. Once I have my month filled out the best I can, I will sit down every Sunday and fill out the pages for the upcoming week. In this section, I will write in the important dates, block out time to do assignments, and block out time to study. I found that It is very important to pencil in your study time because you may push it off (I used to be a big procrastinator on studying. Don’t do that in pharmacy school! ).
  7. After you block out time to do school work and study, you can see when you have time to do other fun activities!

This seems like a lot of work, but I assure you that it will alleviate so much stress when it comes to tackling your school work. Mastering the “work-life balance” that everyone is talking about starts out with great planning.

 

Working in Pharmacy School – A Continuing Process

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This past week at the College of Pharmacy we had our annual Pharmacy Career Fair hosted by our Career Services office and American Pharmacists Association (APhA) chapter. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to share with you my experiences with working while in pharmacy school. Before I share too much though and as this is my first blog post I would like to briefly introduce myself. 

My name is Killian Rodgers and I am a current P2 student here at Ohio State. Originally from the Washington DC area, I did my undergrad at the University of Michigan before moving on down to Columbus. Besides being an Ambassador Coordinator, I am the President of our chapter of Phi Delta Chi, a professional pharmacy fraternity. Outside of school I am a big foodie and love exploring the great food and craft beer scene here in Columbus!

One last thing before I discuss working in pharmacy school – I can’t stress enough that everyones experiences will be different. I have friends that don’t work at all, have friends who work nearly full time, and everywhere in between. There are so many different ways to handle jobs while in school and there is no “right” way to do it. 

When I started pharmacy school last fall, I had the mentality that I wanted to focus on my academic success for the first year and not work at all. So for the first month of school I ignored the emails and facebook posts with internship opportunities. However once I settled in and school got underway I realized the way the curriculum is set up is very conducive to working. I had Wednesdays completely off, half days on Friday, and could do all my school work during the week so I didn’t really need to worry about the weekends. So when the career fair happened last year I talked to a few employers and ended up having a great conversation with the recruiter for Meijer, a regional big-box store with a few locations around Columbus.

After a few interviews I was hired and started working with Meijer in October. I worked with them all through the rest of my first semester and through winter break. Besides having some extra money to help with expenses, working during the semester was great because it provided me with context for what we were learning in class. When we learned about counseling techniques, I was able to observe then practice them in real life with real patients. When we were certified as immunization providers I was able to turn around and start giving shingles vaccines to patients the very next week. Working gave me a great sense that what I was learning was applicable and useful. 

I worked with Meijer throughout the spring semester and into the summer as well but was beginning to realize that community pharmacy wasn’t my calling. So towards the end of the spring semester I began working with the OSU Wexner Medical Center in the Pharmacy Informatics department. This job is a very unique position that would take a whole different blog post to explain but I bring it up to share that so many people do have different jobs throughout school. One of the great things about internships is that they are easy to move between so you can experience new things as your interest change! 

Currently, I work my Informatics job during school and during breaks and absolutely love it. 

I think the key takeaway from my experiences working in pharmacy school is that you can find all sorts of opportunities and shouldn’t feel tied down to a single one. School is the best time to explore different types of pharmacy! I’ve found my niche but it was definitely a journey.