Growing up in Cameroon, I did not have that much visibility into the wonders of conventional medicine. Many a time, family members will consult a traditional healer first, only after all else had failed will they make recourse to the “medicine of the white man”. Although I respect my traditions and revered my ancestors for using medicinal herbs to treat infectious diseases, I nonetheless believed in a better approach, modern and standardized.
I spent my childhood in Douala, on the Atlantic coast of Cameroon. As a child, after an almost fatal incident, my grandmother turned away from traditional medicines and I began to accompany her to the pharmacy. Because she did not speak French or English which are the two official languages of the country, I was the designated translator every time she went to fill her prescriptions from the only pharmacy which was at least a hundred miles away from our home. I remember being so little but so fascinated by this person in a white jacket behind his counter who explained things to me nicely so I could translate to my grandmother in her native tongue.
In middle school, when people asked me, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I was already answering pharmacist. In the final year of secondary school, a classmate introduced to his parents who were pharmacists, after expressing my interest in the profession, they welcomed me every weekend at their pharmacy for rest of the academic year.
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During this time, they made me discover the many facets of their profession. This exposure confirmed my choice to become a pharmacist so much that, after graduating high school back in Cameroon, with restricted access into the only pharmacy school in the region, I enroll into the Medical Laboratory Sciences program. After immigrating to the United States, and determined to become a pharmacist, I started to work as a nursing assistant, then as a medication administration technician in an assisted living home that improved my bedside manners and sharpened my interpersonal communication skills. I then joined the US Army where I served for 3 years and I intend to return to active duty as a skillful pharmacist, a career I know will give my life both meaning and satisfaction.
Beside a strong work ethic, my personal experiences and my strong commitment to improving the life of others make me a suitable candidate for the pharmacy program at LECOM. I know the program to be challenging, however I will confirm my capabilities through my performance and dedication to hard work if given the opportunity. I am certain that a PharmD degree will provide me with an outlet to make a difference in both my military and civilian communities contributing to the well-being of every patient by establishing long-term relationship which will allow me to become familiar with their medical history in order to better serve them.
I ultimately dream of becoming a hospital pharmacist, where I will be able to directly interact with patients and their families, caring for all their medication needs. I look forward to taking care of every patient as better as my grand-mother was taken care of each time we visited our local pharmacy in rural Africa.
