Most of the time, escape means to break free from control or confinement. So for pharmacists, the theme makes sense as most broke free from their daily work schedules to travel, network and attend programs. They met up with old colleagues, friends, classmates and were able to explore San Francisco after the programs were over. However, there seemed to be no escape for students as we still had exams to study for at the end of the day. This proved to be true, not just for Loma Linda students, but for every other school as students were sprawled across the lobby with notes in hand and coffee on the table. At that point, it seemed like the seminar was not an escape at all. But then I began to think that the escape wasn’t as obvious as I thought it would be. It turned out that the seminar gave students an opportunity to escape from the mold of a traditional pharmacy student. By attending programs about residency, writing CVs, and going to showcases to network, we can learn how to distinguish ourselves from other students and how to advance the practice of pharmacy in the future. CSHP’s Escape to Seminar gave us the tools to break free from the confinement that is the stigma of pharmacists being “pill-pushers”. I realized that for students, this type of escape was much more crucial than an escape away from our daily routine. From this experience, I know that I can take the networking skills and the wise advice that I learned from current pharmacists and continue to advance pharmacy practice to the forefront of health care services.

Nadine Siazon
Loma Linda University, School of Pharmacy
OCSHP Liaison – 2014-2015
Class of 2016 Vice President – 2012-2015
Phi Lambda Sigma Vice President – 2014-2015