Last year, the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS) AAPS student chapter signed up more than 80 new members and maintained its numbers despite losing many to graduation. This was due to our attending each individual orientation at the college. These efforts made us a greater presence on campus. Our mission was to prepare our students for a successful career path, while staying focused on our dedication to fostering student research on campus and sustaining a diverse roster of events for members and the campus community. For each semester, we had a distinct focus. In the fall, we emphasized industrial career opportunities and professional development, while in the spring we showcased the importance of research for students.
The chapter executive board developed a series of events to prepare students for careers in industry by providing them needed skills and information. We wanted to raise our profile on campus as the industry organization in addition to a research organization. This was termed the Industry-Ready Series and consisted of four events, including a CV workshop and guest speaker. Our industry speaker was ACPHS faculty member Shaker Mousa, Ph.D., and members were able to discuss career plans with him and what industry entails. After the event, many members discussed how much they appreciated the chance to talk with someone with Mousa’s experience. Overall, we are very proud of the teamwork that went into making these events happen for the school and our AAPS members. For their commitment, members meeting criteria are awarded active membership and an AAPS pin for their white coats. In addition, we hosted a field trip to an industry site, the Pharmaceutical Research Institute, to discuss operations and goals of the institute.
As usual, we assisted in executing the ACPHS Seventh Annual Research Forum and encouraged members to attend. The ACPHS Chapter President spoke about our mission, and AAPS chapter members tabled to answer further questions and take sign-ups. At this event, AAPS-ACPHS announced the creation of the AAPS-ACPHS Student Research Award and began the call for nominations. The executive board discussed who should be recipients of the undergraduate and graduate awards, looking across multiple disciplines to reward dedicated student researchers at our college. In addition to this, we continued to host well-received Research Happy Hours.
We began the Do Your Research! campaign and flooded social media alongside other professional organizations on campus with #DoYourResearch! This campaign was created to express the need for federal funding of science research. The campaign included hosting a speaker, and we were lucky to get, Nathan Tinker, Ph.D., of New York Bio to dispel the controversy in industry. The finale of the campaign was attending the March for Science in Albany as part of the national effort to show support for science education and research. We had many great events this semester, both new and old, and are excited about the direction we are going. AAPS-ACPHS is also honored to be the 2017 First Place Student Chapter of the Year.