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College of Pharmacy Holds Virtual Celebration

A celebration was in order, and the College of Pharmacy had a good one Thursday, April 23. Gathering remotely, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students, leaders and recent alumni celebrated the impressive results of this year’s Match Day.

Residencies aren’t required for pharmacists, but completing them provides additional training for pharmacists to practice at the top of their license. This year, more than 50% of the Northeast Ohio Medical University’s graduating class of pharmacists applied, with a 78% success rate — better than the 63% success rate nationally. This was the largest number of graduating fourth-year students to match, according to Seth Brownlee, Pharm. D., the College of Pharmacy’s senior associate dean of program quality and student success.

Selections were made through the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Residency Matching Program.

Thirty-one newly matched fourth-year pharmacy students, along with six recent College of Pharmacy alumni who had been selected for a postgraduate year two (PGY2) residency, celebrated along with faculty and staff – all in the comfort of their own individual locations, via Zoom. One additional student matched outside the ASHP match.

The event opened with congratulations from College of Pharmacy Dean Richard Kasmer, Pharm.D., J.D., and NEOMED President John T. Langell, M.D., Ph.D.

Then, the celebration started in earnest when the residency match for each fourth-year student was announced, along with announcements of matches for alumni from the classes of 2018 and 2019.

As each student was announced, chat-box congratulations floated across computer monitors and cheers from family and friends could be heard in the background. Many of the students spoke a few words as their name was called.

Anthony Wasielewski, who will be staying in Northeast Ohio to serve his PGY1 ambulatory focus residency at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, could not contain his giddiness as he expressed how excited he was to see the faces of his classmates and faculty again, and just how immensely proud he was of everyone’s achievements.

Jim Ferrell was excited to share the news that he will be staying very close to home. “I actually grew up in Portage County and want to give back to my community while continuing to grow as a clinician and practitioner,” he said.

Ferrell will continue his journey at the University Hospitals Portage Medical Center in Ravenna with a PGY1 residency.

Autumn Walkerly (’19), said that she had wanted to become a psychiatric pharmacist before she even started at the College of Pharmacy. Being matched for a PGY2 residency in psychiatry at the University of Michigan fulfilled her dream, she said.

See the full list* for the Class of 2020.