The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s chapter of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA) was well-represented at the organization’s 2019 national conference.
SNPhA is a national Pharm.D. student association whose goal is to improve access to healthcare among historically underserved populations. Each chapter plans and executes local disease awareness and prevention initiatives with oversight from the national organization. Each national initiative focuses on a different health-related topic, including diabetes, mental health and chronic kidney disease.
The SNPhA 2019 annual convention took place July 26-29 in Houston. The event included case competitions, scholarship announcements and the election of the national board, who help oversee each initiative. PY3 Vince Harris, PY3 Anand Patel, and PY4 Raena Rhone all received a $1,000 scholarship.
Two UNC students were also selected for the SNPhA board at the convention. PY2 Aliyah Cruz will serve as the national Fighting Diabetes Initiative chair, which involves working closely with the chapter chairs and making sure they are effectively serving their local communities. For the Chapel Hill chapter, this would include working with the SHAC clinic or UNC Hospitals.
Cruz said she aims to collaborate with different organizations who may be interested in working with SNPhA.
“My goal for the year in general is to communicate with patients on what they can do to better their health and be very transparent to them,” she said.
Rhone was chosen as the national corresponding secretary and will assist with public relations materials and recording executive meeting minutes. She is also responsible for building sponsorships and serving as a liaison between committee chairs and the executive board.
“I’m really excited to see where we’re going and how I can help bring those ideas that were just ideas and bring them to life,” she said.
The conference also featured a national scrapbook competition, where individual chapters collect pictures that show their achievements from the past year. UNC’s entry, which was created by PY3 Nadaje Paquette in collaboration with Adrienne Davis and Vince Harris, won second place.
PY3 Julie Shiyayo, president of the SNPhA chapter at UNC, said the convention was a great way to meet with student chapters from across the country and reflect on their work from the past year.
“Overall, I was just kind of excited to see everyone’s hard work get recognized and…get to be around other student leaders, and kind of get some ideas going for the new year,” she said.
A video on the 2019 SNPhA conference and the UNC chapter’s achievements can be viewed here.