Arkansas Tech University alumna Kayla Rudolph graduated in May and moved to the Capital City this fall to continue her education at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She’s attending pharmacy school.
During her first semester Rudolph is taking 19 hours of coursework, and she is also interning in the pharmacy at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Rudolph says even though she stays quite busy with her classes, she’s enjoying the experience. Her favorite part has been getting to practice counseling patients on prescription drugs they may use.
“For our practice session, we were filmed counseling patients, who were actually actors, in a room that resembled a doctor’s office. We were critiqued and graded at the end. I enjoyed doing this because I know it will be very valuable to be efficient at this in my future profession,” she says.
Rudolph says the hardest part about taking 19 hours is when multiple assignments are due around the same time.
She adds, “The worst part of school so far was when we had five tests in a period of eight days. I think everyone in my class was exhausted after those eight days.”
The transition to the pharmacy program has not been difficult for Rudolph, and she credits that to Arkansas Tech. In fact, more than 10% of Rudolph’s class attended Arkansas Tech.
“We all discuss regularly how well prepared we feel for pharmacy school because of our classes at Tech. Many people in our class are struggling because they never learned to study at the college they went to for undergrad, and we all feel like our professors from Tech made sure that we knew how to study,” says Rudolph.
Rudolph says because she took challenging science classes at Tech she feels as though pharmacy school is “more like a gradual step instead of a large adjustment.”
She offers that advice to current students considering pharmacy school. She explains, “I would encourage someone considering pharmacy school to take full advantage of the science classes that Tech offers. Don’t skip out on taking the more challenging, upper-level classes. Pharmacy school is only going to be harder, and it is really helpful if you have all of this background knowledge before going.”
Rudolph is scheduled to graduate in May of 2014.
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