2023-2024 Scholarship Recipients

CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy

Saige Megyeri is the JP Opioid Interaction Awareness Alliance’s 2023-2024 scholarship recipient at the CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy. Saige will be in her third year of pharmacy school during the scholarship period. In her application she wrote, “My plan as a student and pharmacist is to continue being an advocate for opioid use disorders by consistently ensuring the safety of the patients I encounter by providing medication education as well as promoting safe prescribing practices to fellow health professionals.” It was that steadfastness along with the passion she demonstrated in her interview that earned Saige this award.

Saige wrote that her interest in pharmacy is closely tied to her being a Type 1 Diabetic since she was 10 years old. She said, “When I was 17 years old trying to determine what I wanted to do as a career, I kept coming back to just how intrigued I was about how one drug, insulin, could change a person’s entire life. Additionally, during my time in undergraduate, the ongoing issues of the opioid epidemic took hold of my heart.” To that end she served as the president of the Pre-Pharmacy Club during her senior year at Colorado State University and worked in retail pharmacy as technician.

Saige currently serves as a pharmacist intern at Children’s Hospital Colorado where continues to develop her skills and apply knowledge from her classes. Her demonstrated long-term commitment to a career in pharmacy combined with her clear understanding of JPOIAA’s vison of the pharmacist’s role in controlling the opioid epidemic made her the unanimous choice to be the tenth scholarship recipient at CU.

Active on campus, Saige serves as president-elect of the University of Colorado’s student chapter of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP), as treasurer-elect of the Phi Lambda Sigma Leadership Society and Mentorship Chair of the CU-PediatRx organization.

Regis School of Pharmacy

Carla Anders has been awarded the JP Opioid Interaction Awareness Alliance’s 2023-2024 pharmacy student scholarship at the Regis University School of Pharmacy. Carla’s passion for achieving what she described as her “deferred dream” made her an ideal candidate to receive this scholarship.

A graduate of Georgia State University where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in biology, Carla went on to Michigan State University where she served as a graduate assistant in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. That she wrote is where her love of pharmacology began. “It shaped my understanding that Healthcare is a passion I could not fulfill, unless I actually worked with patients.” But

her life took a different turn, and she spent eight years teaching high school English and language arts. She said, “Teaching high school was fun and meaningful,” but noted that her real passion was to “spend every day educating patients and advising them on medication use and safety.” I wanted to focus my work on pharmaceutical knowledge and health, she said in her application. To that end she enrolled in community college, while teaching full-time, to fulfill the prerequisites needed to attend pharmacy school, enrolling at Regis as a full-time student in the fall of 2022.

When asked in her interview why she wanted to be a pharmacist she said, “Every patient’s safety and well-being is the reason why I want to be a pharmacist. As a former high school teacher, who supported youth that were at risk of not graduating, I learned that educated youth are powerful against drug misuse and abuse. Honesty and integrity are the values I want to champion as a pharmacist and a healthcare provider, and I am developing a new perspective on these values as I transform from high school teacher to pharmacist.”

Carla will be in her second year of pharmacy school during the scholarship period.

Caden Robertson, who will be in his second year of pharmacy school during the 2023-2024 school year, has received the JP Opioid Interaction Awareness Alliance's Annual pharmacy student scholarship at the Regis University School of Pharmacy.

In Caden’s application he wrote, “Pharmacists are the most accessible type of healthcare provider and fill an extremely important role in the American healthcare system.” Caden noted that as a child his family

often went to the local community pharmacist for medical advice which shaped his desire to pursue a career in Pharmacy. “All kids want to grow up and emulate their heroes, and I am no different. I am studying to be a pharmacist, so that I can become my childhood hero, and serve others, who are struggling in ways that I have struggled.”

Caden's understanding of the Alliance's focus on pharmacists as the last touch point between patients and their medicines was summed up in his application when he stated that due to the disparity in healthcare coverage for Americans, pharmacists are incredibly vital because they offer counsel to patients who can't speak with doctors. "Pharmacists are positioned at the very edge of healthcare where professional oversight ends and patient self-reliance begins. The presence of this safety net of information that pharmacists can provide to patients is of great value to society.

Caden is currently developing his workforce skills by serving as a pharmacy intern in retail pharmacy. His passion and commitment to his chosen profession made him an ideal recipient of this scholarship.