March 5, 2015
In the second week of February, Catherine Buckthal, Stephanie Jean, and Jennifer Ku, all second-year pharmacy students at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, received phone calls with a Baltimore, Maryland, area code.
On the other end was Irish McClung, a career service specialist from the Johns Hopkins Hospital, calling to offer a pharmacy internship with Johns Hopkins.
Their reaction was the same: overwhelming excitement and an enthusiastic yes.
“I knew that only those that were accepted were going to be called,” Ku says. “When the caller ID told me that the call was from Baltimore, my heart skipped a beat.”
Of the twenty-five pharmacy students across the U.S. that were offered a pharmacy internship with Johns Hopkins Hospital this summer, three come from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
“I was absolutely thrilled to have been offered a position, I was so excited that that my hands were shaking when I answered the phone,” Buckthal says.
“I’m humbled and still in disbelief that I am being given the opportunity to work in such a competitive program,” Jean says.
A Summer in Baltimore
“I thought I was shooting for the moon by applying for an internship at Johns Hopkins,” Buckthal says. “But I knew that being a UNC student would help me stand out among the other applicants.”
Almost one-hundred pharmacy students apply to the eight-week program every summer.
“The internship opened many doors for me in my career,” says Ann Bernacchi, a UNC student who participated in the program last summer. “All of the interns are at the top of their class, and I was blown away by the amount of talent that the program brings from across the country.”
Each intern is able to choose among several areas of focus for the summer, with programs ranging from pediatrics to pharmacy administration. The specific duties of the internship depend on the program a student chooses, but Buckthal, Jean, and Ku will all be taking on administrative roles with The Home Care Group in Baltimore.
The Home Care Group provides health services within a patient’s residence. Services generally include medical visits, medical assistance and administration, and training family members to provide future home care, Ku says.
Interns will also complete an independent project during their summer with a preceptor of their choice. The specific projects are yet to be determined and can be as varied as chemotherapy or quality assurance.
In addition to Bernacchi, two other UNC students have participated in the internship since 2010: Melissa Hunter and Whitney Davis.
By Aren Besson
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