Name: Karla Armenta Year, Major: Sophomore, Pre-Pharmacy Original Major: Chemical Engineering
What’s her story?
Background: Karla came to Purdue planning on majoring in Chemical Engineering. Soon into her first semester at Purdue, Karla was unhappy with her courses and realized she wasn’t passionate about a career in Engineering. After a recommendation from her roommate, Karla made an appointment for Career and Major Counseling at the CCO.
The Appointment: At the first appointment, Karla explained her background to the counselor. Karla’s counselor recommended that she take two career assessments – the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Strong Interest Inventory. At the follow-up appointment, the counselor explained that the results of the career assessments did not reflect a strong match between Karla’s interests and preferences with careers in engineering, however, the results did indicate a strong interest in the healthcare field. She suggested that Karla look into careers in this field, as they would be a much better match. After doing some research on her own, Karla decided to change her major to Pre-Pharmacy. Karla only needed to meet with a counselor twice, but many students will see a counselor several times before determining what is best for them.
What’s Karla’s advice for other students unhappy in their major?
Talk to someone at the CCO. Karla’s counselor didn’t just recommend a more compatible major; she provided information on other Purdue resources to help Karla succeed, and got Karla into contact with a Pre-Pharmacy adviser to facilitate the process of changing majors.
What has Karla done since her appointment?
During Spring Break of Karla’s freshman year, Karla took the initiative to shadow pharmacists at the Purdue Retail Pharmacy and CVS. She got to observe daily tasks that they completed and ask them what they enjoyed (and didn’t enjoy) about their work. By networking with contacts through her high school counselor, last summer Karla got an internship for UC San Diego in the Department of Family and Preventative Medicine. She helped a professor with clinical trials, and even though her work wasn’t directly related to pharmacy she feels that it was beneficial to her professional development and introduction to the field of healthcare.
Karla’s future plans
This summer, Karla hopes to find another internship in the healthcare field. Her plan is to apply to the Purdue Pharmacy school. The professional pharmacy program will help her determine the type of position career she would like to pursue, but right now she thinks community pharmacy would suit her best.
