Two pharmacy students named as 2021 Walmart Scholars
National honor given to students planning to pursue careers as pharmacy professors.
Janel Shoun-Smith | 615.966.7078 |
Two Lipscomb College of Pharmacy P4 students were named by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy as 2021 Walmart Scholars. These students, Jacqueline Lange and Hunter Sowell, had the opportunity to represent Lipscomb at the AACP’s national conference for students pursuing futures as pharmaceutical professors.
Jacqueline Lange
The Walmart Scholars Award is both extremely competitive and distinguished. Since 2005, the AACP and Walmart have fostered both an inspiration and commitment among pharmacy students to pursue careers as professors. Together, the organizations ensure there will always be a supply of bright scholars to teach future generations at AACP accredited institutions across the country.
“Through the Walmart Scholars program, students can explore as well as participate in the current conversations and happenings at the national level among colleges of pharmacy across the country,” said Sarah Collier, assistant professor of pharmacy and Sowell’s faculty mentor.
There have been more than 1,200 recipients in the Walmart Scholars program since 2005, and 85 recipients were named nationwide this year.
Each year, the scholarship program connects graduate students, professional doctoral students, residents, and fellows to mentors. At this year’s AACP Annual Conference, this community came together online to enjoy valuable networking, educational and poster sessions from peers and faculty and the annual teacher’s seminar, for established pharmacy education faculty.
“One of my career goals is to be involved in pharmacy academia in addition to being a clinical pharmacist specializing in oncology,” said Sowell. “The teacher’s seminar provided me with excellent tools and experiences that I will be able to use in my career in academia to impact pharmacy students in the most significant way I can.”
Hunter Sowell
Before Lipscomb, Sowell worked as a chemistry tutor at his school’s student success center while completing his undergraduate degree. Sowell credits his dream of working in education to this history of peer-to-peer teaching, a passion he still participates in today.
The Atlanta, Georgia-local is currently positioned as the supplemental instruction peer leader for the microbiology and immunology course for first-year Lipscomb pharmacy students.
Last fall Sowell was inducted into the Rho Chi Honor Society, an esteemed international pharmaceutical society. He also participated in the Vanderbilt Program of Interprofessional Learning (VPIL) program during his first two years of pharmacy school.
Like Sowell, Lange is also planning to integrate academia into her future career.
“My current career interests are in critical care and emergency medicine,” detailed Lange, from Michigan City, Indiana. “I plan to pursue a general PGY1 residency after graduation that includes a teaching certificate and opportunities to precept students. I would love to someday have the opportunity to practice in one of those settings while also precepting students and potentially teaching on relevant content.”
“I have served in leadership roles in our college’s ASHP-SSHP chapter, APhA-ASP chapter, Phi Delta Chi chapter and Rho Chi chapter,” she said. “I have also participated in the VPIL program where I had the opportunity to work collaboratively with medical, nursing and social work students in the Vanderbilt University Adult Emergency Department.”
Lange is extremely grateful for the insights this program has provided her with. “I hope to utilize the skills I have learned to someday practice at the top of my license and advocate for the advancement of pharmacy professionals,” said Lange.
