“I never thought I’d be working with and teaching fourth graders during pharmacy school, but I can see how it’s helping me learn and understand the material,” says first-year pharmacy student Adam Link.
Link and other P-1s are part of a service learning and nutrition program that the school conducts during the P-1 year with four elementary schools in Aurora, Colo. The program ties into what the students are learning during their didactic curriculum. “So, for instance when we learn about allergies in class, we take that information and distill it down to something a 10-year-old can understand. We then create a lesson plan and teach it to the kids. It’s a valuable skill especially in terms of counseling,” says Link.
According to Alicia Johnston, a teacher at Vaughn Elementary School, “I love that it gives the kids an idea of careers and jobs and real people in real capacities. They see real people with real jobs, doing real work. It also works the other way. The pharmacy students get real life experiences too just like the kids.”
