May 8, 2020
Carolyn Rath, a graduating Pharm.D. student at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, was recognized last month by Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz as a 2020 Chancellor’s Award Recipient for her service and role in the Pharm.D. community.
Rath’s classmates nominated her for the George H. Cocolas Pharmacy Student Body Award, which was renamed in 1998 after a former associate dean of the School. The award recognizes a graduating student who has excelled in academics, character and extracurricular involvement. According to the Chancellor’s Awards website, the program is the only campus-wide student recognition event at UNC-Chapel Hill. Due to COVID-19, this year’s recipients were honored virtually in place of the annual event at UNC’s student union.
Rath was dedicated to several activities on campus, particularly the Student Health Action Coalition (SHAC), a group of students from different healthcare disciplines who focus on providing care to underserved patients in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community. As the SHAC pharmacy coordinator, she expanded the School’s involvement in the program to provide more services and improve patient care.
“I was really grateful when I found out that I received the award because it was a reflection of how wonderful my classmates are,” Rath said. “I think a lot of people, when they think about [graduate school], they think of it as a more individual time…but it was really important to me to forge strong connections with classmates and professors.”
Rath was also a recruitment ambassador for the School and helped plan the annual white coat ceremony for third-year Pharm.D. students. She said even after going to rival Duke University for undergrad, she was immediately drawn to the UNC student body and school environment.
After graduation in May, Rath will begin a first-year pharmacy residency at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center with a focus in clinical skills. She plans to pursue a second-year residency in oncology and eventually work as a pediatric oncology pharmacist.
“I’m so grateful to the school for everything they’ve given me…to develop my personal [and] professional skills, and all the support from the administration, and from professors and my classmates,” she said.