Woodridge Grad Got Start in Pharmacy in Health Careers Technologies
Samantha Parisi, a 2009 Woodridge graduate and Health
Careers Technologies completer, credits her experiences in the College Tech Prep Initiative for her early commitment to a career in pharmacy.
“Health Careers Technologies exposed me to so many different professions and helped me determine that pharmacy was the best fit for me,” Parisi says. Between her junior and senior year, Parisi interned at the pharmacy at the Cleveland Clinic. “My, teacher, Ms. Catie
Milton helped me find the internship where I worked 40 hours a week. A fter that, I was totally focused on pharmacy as a career,” she says.
Parisi chose the University of Kentucky because of its pharmacy program and fasttracked
through her 70 hours of undergraduate requirements in two years. She graduated
from the four-year PharmD program in May 2015. During her last year, Parisi had a number
of internships, including spending seven weeks in Poland, where she met pharmacy students
from around the world.
Currently, she is doing a two-year residency at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans
Health System in Gainesville, FL. Although residency is not required, Parisi says she wanted
further specialty training and “to do everything I can to improve the lifestyle and health of the
veteran population.”
Her advice to Compact students is “Don’t let anyone discourage you.” Although her
college advisors predicted she wouldn’t be accepted, Parisi was one of only 15 in her
class of 130 admitted to the PharmD program after two years of undergraduate studies.