Jimmy Phuong

Alumni Spotlight

LEAP Academy Class of 2015

During my high school years, I was inspired to study pharmacy after seeing a pharmacist on duty talking to a customer so fluently with confidence. Not only did I want to be able to do this, but also I want to best aid my community. I became interested in how medicine interacts with the human body.

There are many options of what to do with my degree once I’m done. I am not entirely sure of what specific thing I want to do, but I am interested in clinical pharmacy. I planned on starting in a retail pharmacy and eventually move on to working in a hospital.

LEAP helped me to explore the vast medical field to help me decide what I want to pursue. By choosing the biomedical field at LEAP, I was able to learn about different fields of medicine I could study in, leading me to choose pharmacy.

My college experience started when I started my EOF program in the summer of 2015. I had mixed feelings the day before this. Once class started, my perspective on college changed. Classes became more intense and we were on our own on how to study for exams. There were many sleepless nights, where the EOF class and I stayed up almost all night to finish writing essays. Not only did this program give me a feeling of what college will be like, but it also gave me a view of what I will be studying in the field of pharmacy.

The Alfredo Santiago Scholarship supported my experience and my college expenses by helping me to focus less on financial issues and more on academics. Without the scholarship I would have a difficult time looking for support such as loan and other offers. Financial issues can affect my academics and learning experiences, which can prevent me from pursuing my dreams.