Nontraditional Pharmacy Students Find Opportunities in ASHP Summer Internship

You wouldn't know it from their CVs, but neither Chloe Anderson nor Rebecca Merzke intended to become a pharmacist. Anderson once dreamed of becoming a nurse, while Merzke spent 16 years in her first career as a Home Depot store manager.

Today, these rising P3 students are pursuing dual-degree programs at their respective pharmacy schools. Their paths recently converged when Anderson took on the role of ASHP’s 2024 summer intern and Merzke became the first-ever summer intern for The Pharmacy Technician Society℠ (TPTS).

ASHP's annual summer internship provides undergraduate pharmacy students with an opportunity to gain experience in association membership development and membership marketing, an understanding of the value of pharmacy associations to the profession, and the importance of advocating for the profession at the local, state, and national levels.

The 10-week program gave Anderson and Merzke new insight into their chosen profession, helped them hone their leadership skills, and proved the value of saying “yes” to new opportunities.

Long and winding roads to pharmacy

Anderson loves serving others through healthcare — but once she enrolled in a nursing program right out of high school, she wasn’t sure it was the best fit.

Her advisor suggested pharmacy instead and, after working as a pharmacy technician throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, she applied to pharmacy school. Now Anderson is working toward her PharmD at the University of Charleston School of Pharmacy (UCSOP) in Charleston, West Virginia, plus a master’s in business administration.

Merzke went back to school in her mid-30s to earn a business degree and expand her job prospects. When she needed a new job, a chemistry classmate invited her to join her as a pharmacy technician at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Outpatient Pharmacy. The pharmacists there took her under their wing as she earned her bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences in 2023.

The mother of three is on track to graduate from UNM College of Pharmacy in Albuquerque with her doctorate of pharmacy and a master’s in pharmaceutical sciences in toxicology. 

Both have been very active as pharmacy students, Anderson as UCSOP Student Society of Health-System Pharmacy (SSHP) president and Class of 2026 vice president, and Merzke as treasurer for UNM’s Health Sciences Student Council and incoming president for her Phi Lambda Sigma chapter, to name just a few endeavors. “I’ve been in pretty much every organization you can think of,” said Merzke.

They credit their advisors and mentors for ongoing support and coaching, and for helping them learn about a wide and diverse range of pharmacy paths, including association roles and the ASHP summer internship. 

A peek behind the curtain

Throughout the summer, the ASHP interns led and supported a variety of projects, from devising ways to increase pharmacy technician representation on state boards of pharmacy, to refreshing Practice Advancement Initiative (PAI) 2030 resources for SSHPs, to fact-checking drug monographs provided to ASHP members. 

“It was a cool experience to be part of that process, knowing that something I did is going to be used to help patients on a national level,” said Merzke of working on the monographs.

Anderson and Merzke fulfilled their internships remotely from home, making one trip in late July to meet ASHP staff members — and each other — in person at ASHP headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. In 10 short weeks, they had networked with dozens of people across ASHP staff and leadership. 

Merzke said, “ASHP has done a good job making us feel at home and part of the team. Everyone has been so kind, welcoming, and helpful.”

The internship provided Merzke and Anderson with plenty of inspiration for where to go with their pharmacy careers. Both are interested in organizational management, now that they’ve had a behind-the-scenes glimpse of ASHP.

Encouraging others

As pharmacy learners and future leaders, Anderson and Merzke encourage fellow students to embrace their personal journeys, no matter their background, where they live, or what school they attend. Saying “yes” to opportunity led them to their summer with ASHP — a lesson they won’t soon forget.

“If the opportunity is presented, take it. Even if it seems too far-fetched, apply and go for it,” advised Merzke. “You have your own unique perspective and value that you can bring to a project.”

Added Anderson: “I am not your typical student, so to have an organization [like ASHP] embrace that is super powerful to me.”