By: Andrew Tabit
Third year pharmacy students Ashley Ta and Duy Ho along with second year student Stefanija Tubbs were recognized at the LEAD Presidential Leadership award ceremony on April 17.
The ceremony is held every year and honors student leaders across WSU campuses who demonstrate exceptional leadership and service.
Third year student Ashley Ta spent this last year as president of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) on the Spokane campus, a group that is primarily focused on geriatric patient care and puts on events throughout the community advocating for better senior care.
“I’m really passionate about geriatric patients and senior care pharmacy in general,” Ta said. “I think that there’s a lot of advocacy that needs to be done there.”
Wanting to help patients with Alzheimer’s, Ta leads research on fidget blankets, multi-textured blankets designed to help those patients who have calm sensory issues. Her team gathered 50 students to make 25 blankets to be distributed for free among multiple memory care centers.
“A lot of these centers try to attain those blankets but they’re really expensive so they actually only have one big sharable blanket,” said Ta. “What I wanted to do was have each patient have their own.”
Next year the ASCP will be led by Amber Duldulao who Ta thanked for her support this past year and is excited to see take on the leadership role.
The second student recognized was third year Spokane student Duy Ho.
Ho served as president of Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNAPHA) on the Spokane campus. His group was focused on not only promoting Pharmacy as a profession but also serving and giving voice to underserved populations in their community.
“We really try to build this relationship within our organization like a Pharmily, we call it SNAPHAM,” said Ho.
Ho’s group worked with the Second Harvest group in Spokane and their “Mobile Market” program to help promote nutritional lifestyles and provide food and allergy kits to the community.
Ho wanted to thank his family for their support and keeping him going through the years, as well as his team in Spokane.
“A lot of it really comes down to the team members, and it felt really weird that I was up there by myself getting the recognition, I really want the spotlight to be on them too,” said Ho.
Finally, second year Stefanija Tubbs was recognized for establishing the first RSO on the Yakima campus and the Yakima Student Pharmacist Association (YSPA) of which she was acting president last year.
“Coming from the Pullman campus I missed it, I missed that Coug Pharmily and I missed having that community,” said Tubbs.
The community-focused club quickly encompassed all of the 30-plus students on the campus and recently held its first election for new leadership.
“The club has changed, drastically, it’s nothing like it was before which is exactly what we wanted,” Tubbs said. “It is whatever the kids who are currently running it and currently involved in it want.”
Stefanija also wanted to thank Dr. Christina Buchman and the new president of the YSPA Zohal Sarwary for their support and encouragement.
All three students will be moving on from their previous positions with Ta and Ho beginning their fourth year rotations and Tubbs beginning an internship at Virginia Mason Memorial.