Tapestry, Salsa Dancing, Lunch with Prof. Vogt

So this past week has been pretty busy, especially with finals coming up. But nontheless exciting all the way.

Last Friday there was a beautiful array of cultural dances displayed at Tapestry, a celebratory multiculural affair held annually at UCSF. From festive Native American dancing to mellow African drumming, to spicy salsa dancing, swing dancing, an upbeat Indian/ Hip Hop performance, I was consistently amazed of the customs and traditions that students still held onto. Several of us pharmacy students were so inspired by the sheer talent and passion that we decided that we would participate in next year's event and perhaps display a few dance moves of our own.

So after we saw a group perform a great number salsa dancing, several of us decided we had to go salsa dancing. And wouldn't you believe, that one of the nation's top 3 salsa dance clubs was right in San Francisco! We made our way to Club Cocomoe Saturday night and had a great time. Free dance lessons are offered at 8pm and a live band performed at 10pm. The scene was a bit older that night but entertaining. You can tell several of them have been dancing for years if not decades.

Today, I had lunch with Professor Eleanor Vogt, one of the advisers of the Health Policy and Management Pathway. (On a sidenote: As a first year pharmacy student, you are exposed to the three major pathways offered at UCSF- 1) Pharmacy Care 2) Health Policy and Management and 3) Pharmaceutical Sciences in an introductory elective class. Past students, current professors and faculty members discuss their experiences with each pathway). Anyways, if you google her name, you will find out that she is a very VERY well respected leader and expert in drug safety in the Pharmacy world. So you can imagine how nervous I must have been to be graced by her presence. But she was such a sweetheart from the get-go, very down to earth and personable. She wanted to listen to everyone's story and directed me to several resources that would help me with my future pharmacy endeavors. She advised us (me along with several of my classmates) to be assertive and reach out to professors and learn about what they are involved in, in order to gauge where the future of pharmacy will be. She assured us that most professors would love to talk about their work but are so busy that they never have time to keep their doors open for "office hours". She said to not let this discourage us because a simple e-mail may open doors.

She shared with us her own research, particularly with the cost-effectiveness of pharmacy counseling in the reduction of costs for hospitals and the exciting new path that this may have for pharmacists. Very soon, the model that she has designed for her study will be distributed throughout various chainstores in the state of california and pharmacists will be spending more time counseling than just dispensing. Hooray for patient contact! You see, that's why I want to pursue HP&M ( Health Policy and Management)! She's been such an impetus for change and you can tell from her enthusiasm ( she didn't even finish her lunch!) that she genuinely cares about the profession. She even inspires me to change the world!! She even told us that she receives telephone calls from students in the middle of the night and counsels them. How crazy is that? This just goes to show you how phenomenal the faculty here at UCSF are and how supportive they are of your ideas. It's nothing like undergrad here, the professors know you by your name. *sighs* I really am having a great time. Now..errr...finals time!!