Cepeda and Ishikawa keep working on achieving their dreams

PharmD Patsylynn Cepeda poses with her mentor, Ted Parker of Brabu Pharmacy. (Bea Cabrera)

The ultimate title for a career in pharmacy is “PharmD” or simply “Dr.,” which is short for Pharmacy Doctor, and entails not only finishing a bachelor’s degree and passing the licensure examinations but actually having the heart to commit to patient care, making decisions based on scientific research and being always open for innovation.

These and more are what’s keeping PharmD Patsylynn Cepeda and PharmD Alina Ishikawa motivated as they pursue ever higher ideas in their careers. Another common denominator is that both women were encouraged and empowered to pursue their goals from their work experience at Brabu Pharmacy.

Cepeda, a graduate of Kagman High School, started college at the Northern Marianas College, eventually taking pre-pharmacy course at the University of Guam and continuing her Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Hawaii in Hilo. She recently passed the board exam, earning her the PharmD title, and returned to Saipan to put her education into good use.

“My family supported this and gave me the idea to apply for work at Brabu Pharmacy. I got the job and caught on really fast to become a pharmacy technician. I liked what I was doing to a point that I felt that I wanted to do more. This made me pursue Pharmacy school, which was an eye opener and made me feel that this is important. It was a difficult journey but I enjoyed it and made it to the end,” she added.

Cepeda started work at Brabu early this week while preparing for the other half of her licensure exam—the Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination—the law examination designed to assess how knowledgeable the pharmacy graduate is about laws and regulations in his/her jurisdiction. “Aside from studying and raising my 1-year old twins, I’m back home and started working at Brabu. Throughout my journey, they have always stayed with me, always kept in touch and every time I come back, they welcome me with open arms and that is why I am back working for them. …I love how patient and family oriented they are—Ted and Kathy are great people,” she said.

“Since I still have another exam to overcome, my work at Brabu entails engaging with patients by answering their questions, checking their medications to make sure that it is the right one for them, and keeping them safe. …If they need counseling for whatever medication, I will be here. …I want patients to feel at home, like they are family and most importantly, for them to be happy to come back every time,” she added.

According to PharmD Alina Ishikawa, her training and work experience at Brabu Pharmacy opened many doors for her to pursue the pharmacy program at Northeastern University in Boston. (Contributed Photo)

Ishikawa, a graduate of Marianas Baptist Academy on Saipan, recently graduated from pharmacy school at Northeastern University in Boston. She started as a volunteer at Brabu Pharmacy back in 2010 and became a part-time worker two years later.

“My education at MBA, all extracurricular activities—which includes experience in Mock Trial, National Speech and Debate, Science Fair, STEM Fair—definitely helped me prepare to get into the pharmacy program. Also, if it wasn’t for the opportunity that Ted and Kathy gave me, I don’t think I would have had the opportunity to intern at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, which is one of the top hospitals in the nation,” she said.

“My path to pharmacy was inspired through my experience at Brabu where I discovered the importance of medication management. …The pharmacy program in college was rigorous, but I wouldn’t have made it through without my parents, sister, my Boston and Saipan friends, extended family, and mentors that guided me throughout this,” she added.

Ishikawa is on Saipan preparing for her board licensure exam and said she chose Northeastern University’s accelerated pharmacy program due to its well-known cooperative education program.

At Boston Medical Center, among the experiences that taught her a lot was being part of a project “where we began transferring patient’s prescriptions with the hospital’s insurance plan to the hospital’s Mail Order Pharmacy so that patients could get their medications delivered to their homes during the outbreak without risking exposure to the virus, which was a large-scale public health effort,” she added.

To build and train young blood to get into the pharmacy profession—whether as a PharmD or a pharmacy technician—is one of the missions of Brabu Pharmacy since it opened 12 years ago according to owner and pharmacist Ted Parker.

“The amount of work that you put into mentoring people, getting them to do things and when it comes to fruition, when you see that they have actually succeeded and they have actually started believing in themselves that they can actually succeed, is the most gratifying thing in the world,” he said. “…this is what the islands need. You have to build a local workforce. It is the same thing that Tony Pelligrino was doing when he started the trade institute (now the Northern Marianas Technical Institute). He understood that in order for the CNMI to succeed, your workforce has to be home-grown and relying for the U.S. for the welfare system is not going to work for the long term. We have to have a local workforce that’s born, devoted and will stay here,” he added.