Drumroll, Please….AAPS Announces 2017 Student Chapter Winners
Many factors contribute to creating an outstanding AAPS student chapter. Scientific speakers, career-boosting workshops, networking events, community outreach and social opportunities are a few of the aspects that create an all-around enriching experience for AAPS student chapter members. Putting those pieces together is easier said than done.
Each year, AAPS has the honor (and challenge!) of identifying three student chapters that have excelled in offering their members an inspiring, educational, and well-rounded experience throughout the year. The review committee carefully considers applicant’s goals, accomplishments, community outreach, professional and scientific learning opportunities, collaboration with other schools, recruitment, and involvement with AAPS. This year’s winners worked hard work to build vibrant chapters.
AAPS proudly presented the following chapters with the 2017 Student Chapter of the Year (SCOTY) awards:
- Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (Albany, N.Y.)—1st Place
- Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, Pa.)—2nd Place
- Lipscomb University (Nashville, Tenn.)—3rd Place
The University of Maryland (Baltimore, Md.) and University of Kentucky (Lexington, Ky.) both received Honorable Mention.
What contributes to a strong chapter? “Making a bigger name for ourselves and establishing AAPS as the preeminent organization for industry and research had a large influence,” said Chiara Evans, Albany AAPS Student Chapter Chair. Evans has been in a leadership position with the AAPS student chapter for most of her graduate years, which contributes to the chapter’s long term success and stability.
Evans said that it’s critical to routinely assess the needs of members and “find ways to cater to your audience.” Evans noted that as a pharmacy school, it is important to help students see how their work fits into the bigger picture of pharmaceutical sciences and health care. This awareness helps keep students engaged with the chapter.
Kevin DeBoyace, Chair of the Duquesne AAPS Student Chapter said that two main factors that contributed to the success of their chapter have been collaboration with nearby universities and increased involvement in educational outreach.
“We have continued to hold a yearly, student-organized conference with the AAPS student chapters of the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University. The event helps to facilitate interactions between the various student organizations, and also enables communication across pharmaceutical disciplines. The SciTech days, an event at the Carnegie Science Center, which exposes local students from grades 5–12 to science and technology through workshops and hands-on demonstrations, also helped us to promote pharmaceutical science. We also significantly increased our online presence to more actively engage with our members. We started a website, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook accounts to keep members informed about upcoming events.”
Deboyace’s advice for other chapters is to “reach out to the relevant divisions of their university to work collaboratively. The goals of AAPS and the goals of the pharmaceutical sciences departments at our university overlap significantly, so we have been able to seek administrative and financial support to further those goals.
AAPS has more than 100 student chapters around the world. To support the growth and success of all AAPS student chapters, chapter chairs who were at the AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego attended a workshop titled, Strengthen the Bonds: How to Improve Teamwork and Chapter Success. Chairs learned new engagement and recruitment strategies and shared ideas with each other.
Congratulations to all 2017 SCOTY winners!
Albany College of Pharmacy Recruiting