Keaton Higgins is a final-year PharmD candidate at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy.
When I began my first year of pharmacy school, I knew that I was going to have a challenging road ahead. With a bachelor’s degree and certification in athletic training, I would have to look far and wide for opportunities that could potentially fulfill my desire of having a career as a pharmacist within the sports medicine field.
While I entered pharmacy school with 5 years of community pharmacy experience, I had a desire to challenge the status quo. However, throughout many conversations, I found myself advocating for the value pharmacists could provide in many areas of health care, including sports medicine. These experiences early on in my pharmacy journey slowly, but surely, guided me toward my true passions in pharmacy leadership, advocacy, and education.
Now inspired by APhA–ASP National President Kennedy Erickson’s “Courage to Change” theme, I proudly share my passions with you.
Courage to lead
I have been fortunate to have been presented with several leadership opportunities during my time at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy.
One of the first and most impactful roles that I filled was leading our school’s unique Healthcare Business Leadership Program alongside an incredible team. This student-led program provides student pharmacists with the chance to learn invaluable business skills that are critical to today’s world of health care. During this experience, we helped student pharmacists build relationships with several successful pharmacists in many areas of practice as we look to begin our own careers.
Another leadership opportunity for which I will forever be grateful is when I was able to be part of team that helped bring a new student organization to our college. After identifying a lack of available resources helping our students pursue nontraditional career paths, we worked tirelessly to remedy the issue and overcame obstacles to do so. The passion and dedication that our team displayed during this months-long process was truly inspiring to me and further strengthened my desire to continue down the road less traveled.
Courage to advocate
While I have always been fascinated with the idea of leadership, it wasn’t until my second year of pharmacy school that I understood the crucial importance of advocating for the profession. It was at this time that I signed up for an elective course titled “Leadership and Political Advocacy.” Throughout this semester-long course, it became clear that our profession needed student voices. The lessons I learned and people I met throughout this course unequivocally changed the direction of my life, and for that I could never be thankful enough. This year, I have the immense fortune to serve as a teaching assistant for this course that has made such a difference for me.
After this class, I became heavily involved as a student member of the Iowa Pharmacy Association (IPA). In the last few years, I have been able to serve as an IPA House of Delegates representative, sit on their Student Pharmacist Advisory Committee, organize a Legislative Day preparation event, and attend a student leadership conference. While all of these moments nourished my passion for advocacy, my time as IPA’s Executive Intern was truly the turning-point in my life. Through this experience, I was able to grasp a deep understanding of pharmacy associations and the important roles they play. Helping advance the profession of pharmacy was always at the forefront of IPA’s decision-making, and I finally felt that I was somewhere I belonged. Attending APhA2022 in San Antonio and representing my school in the National Patient Counseling Competition further validated this feeling.
Courage to educate
Although the importance of effective leadership and advocacy have been ingrained in me, it has been made clear that one thing stands above all the rest for most pharmacists I’ve met: paving the way forward for students.
I was lucky enough to be offered a position with CEImpact, a pharmacy education company, and through this role I get to provide insight on what it’s like to be a final-year pharmacy student through monthly blog postings. My hope for these posts is for future pharmacists to use my experiences to their benefit while setting themselves up for success down the road.
I have also been able to join various podcasts and webinars to share my experiences in the hopes of showing students that it’s okay to leave your comfort zone and make a difference at an early stage in your career.
Find the courage to explore
I understand that my experiences have been unorthodox in many aspects. However, I hope we can continue shining a light on the vast world of career opportunities that exist for us as student pharmacists. There truly is no limit on what we can accomplish as future PharmDs, and I hope we all can find the courage to change the world—one future pharmacist at a time.