When University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences alumna Uyen Dinh, PharmD, was an undergraduate chemistry major at CalPoly, she would sit with her best friend in the lab and dream about pharmacy school in Colorado. Originally from Vietnam, Dr. Dinh moved to the United States when she was 17 and carried a pocket English translation dictionary with her to graduate high school.
“I could do science, I could do math,” she explained, “and I needed help learning English.”
As a first-generation student, Dinh’s family was supportive but also did not have the same lived experience to offer academic help. So, Dinh did what came naturally to her: research. She began exploring everything she could find about healthcare careers, schools, and further education. Before she made a commitment to move to Denver and attend pharmacy school, she needed to make sure it was the right path for her.
“I took a gap year,” she said, “and I worked in a pharmacy and that is when I decided that, yes, this is what I want to do.”
Through her independent drive for education, she discovered a passion for nuclear pharmacy and chose three of her elective rotations to be in oncology. Rotations are part of CU Pharmacy's Experiential Education, a hands-on curriculum developed to give students real-world education. Through it, Dinh was able to fine-tune her interests and work with a variety of pharmacists.
“I shadowed a nuclear pharmacist, and I took a didactic course for a nuclear medicine certificate so that I could learn the foundations, the chemistry, and the mathematics behind nuclear medicine,” she said. “There is a lot of compounding, every day is a new day.”
Dinh loves the thrill of a new day so much that she applied for, and was hired, as a nuclear pharmacist with Cardinal Health. She started immediately after she graduated in 2024. Oh, and that best friend from CalPoly, who used to dream of pharmacy school with Dinh in the chemistry lab? She is fellow 2024 CU Pharmacy graduate Yuna Jung. Together the two of them have proven that determination, and a good friend, can accomplish almost anything.
Photo at top: Dr. Uyen Dinh visits a botanical garden while in Texas doing her elective APPE rotation in nuclear pharmacy.
