Pharmacy Perspectives - Graduation 2017 - 8

Graduation :

Child of the World
I'm a third culture kid.

- WHITLEY YI.

who grew up overseas, has always loved the global perspective. Yi's family moved to Indonesia when she was 8 years
old to do missionary work. She came back to the U.S. at
16 with an entirely different perspective.
The years in Indonesia taught her much about the
world. "I learned how to teach myself," says Yi. Her mother
home schooled her for part of that time. However, she
Third-culture kid, Whitley Yi, is a child of the world

also was a product of the Internet and took on-line
classes - way before they became the trend.
Her first exposure to pharmacy was in Indonesia.
"We didn't have access to quality health care. A lot of
care was provided by us emailing friends and family
- physicians and pharmacists - back home," Yi recollects. Once they received a diagnosis they just walked
into a local pharmacy and requested the medicines
they needed. "No prescriptions required," says Yi. "It
was very much clinical pharmacy. And I fell in love.
Pharmacy is the culmination of all science and is the
ultimate in applied science."
For Yi, her love of pharmacy and the world has
spurred her on to pursue non-traditional opportunities, including presenting and serving as a student
representative at international conferences such as the
International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and
International Pharmaceutical Students Federation
(IPSF). Fortunately for Yi, the school was very receptive to developing international relationships. "Even
though it was challenging to jet set off to India for the
61st World Congress in the middle of my pharmacy
program, I managed to squeeze in studying on long
flights and kept up with the program through Panopto
- the school's live streaming and recording platform,"
says Yi. She's made great connections along the way and
plans on "making her own opportunities in the future."
Her next stop is a PGY1 at the University of North
Carolina Medical Center. "And hopefully followed
by a PGY-2 in informatics," says Yi. According to Yi,
"We need to be forwarding thinking as pharmacists.
Rather than trying to figure out where we fit in after
technological disruptions, we need to be the ones to
capitalize on the technology so we can have a bigger
impact on patient care."

FACING CHALLENGES HEAD ON

aLaura Creager has experienced
quite a lot in her life. She and her
brother are the first in their family
to obtain bachelors' degrees. And,
MaLaura will be the first to attain
her doctorate. "My family is so, so
proud," says Creager, who will have her own cheering section
at Commencement when 20 family members descend on
Colorado to share her excitement. "They are so impressed

CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

that I will be a pharmacist."
For Creager, the mantra "it's not if you go to college,
but when" that many families embrace was not reality.
Even though her family valued education, they
just didn't know how to get there. "I didn't understand applications or the process. There was no one
to work through it with, so I thought I couldn't go
because I couldn't afford it," Creager says.
MaLaura Creager and her daughter, Evelyn, share a special bond

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