Pharmacy Student Honored for Dedication to Volunteer Work
"Volunteer work and community outreach gives pharmacy students a chance to find out what they can really do," says Parth Parikh. "It's a chance to be creative while changing lives for the better."
This attitude has won Parth Parikh, a PharmD student, the Pharmacy Times/Wal-Mart RESPy award, given to students who demonstrate a commitment to volunteer service, a high level of professional and public-health related activities, and a dedication to advancing the pharmacy profession.
Parikh has been involved in volunteer efforts since his first semester at the USC School of Pharmacy, and has participated in over a dozen health fairs and community clinics that proving screening and counseling services to underserved populations in L.A.
He also became an active member of the American Pharmacists Association- Academy of Student Pharmacists Operation Diabetes, helping the project directors with planning various health fairs and developing effective educational tools. In addition, Parikh is involved with SHARE (Students Helping and Receiving Education), acting as director of the smoking cessation program offered to the predominantly homeless residents of Los Angeles’ Skid Row area.
“Working with homeless patients was extremely rewarding,” said Parikh. “For them, the smoking cessation program was like a rebirth, and I was so glad to be a part of that.”
Parikh even brought his dedication to the pharmacy profession and volunteer work abroad, co-organizing Project India, an outreach project that educates pharmacy students in India about clinical aspects of the profession, a facet not currently emphasized abroad.
The project included two training sessions where 52 students from four different schools of pharmacy in India were trained to screen and counsel for diabetes. The sessions took place in late December at the Nirma University Institute of Pharmacy and the L.M. College of Pharmacy, both located in Gujarat, India.
The students also organized seven health fairs where 1,025 participants were screened, with 70 receiving referrals to local physicians. At these health fairs, students who participated in the training sessions were given the opportunity to utilize their newly acquired skill sets to provide free diabetes screenings to the community.
“Students there had no clue about clinical pharmacy, so educating them about that aspect of the field helped give them pride in their profession and a different outlook on what a pharmacist can do,” explained Parikh.
Parikh will continue the project, returning to India in December to educate students there about clinical pharmacy opportunities and empowering them to initiate outreach efforts of their own.
Each year, only eight students from across the country receive the RESPy award for “Respect, Excellence and Service in Pharmacy,” and are selected by a panel of judges who evaluate the students’ commitment to community service.
Parikh will appear in the September issue of Pharmacy Times in recognition of his award.
