UQ Pharmacy School student Joanna Agwa recently chatted with OzTREKK about her experiences studying at the UQ Pharmacy School! We were so excited to hear from her, especially since she just wrapped up her first semester of school. Read more on Joanna’s experience and don’t get too creeped out when you read about her most memorable moment thus far in Australia:
Why did you decide to go to pharmacy school in Australia?
I decided to go to Pharmacy school in Australia because I love to travel and I was at a stage in my life where there was nothing preventing me from travelling any where in the world for the next stage of my education. I applied to several programs in several countries but pharmacy in Australia just seemed to work out perfectly.
What pulled you toward the University of Queensland?
I was attracted to University of Queensland because of their ranking relative to the other pharmacy school that I was accepted to. I really did not know what to expect I was just excited to be moving to Australia.
Now that you’ve been in the program for a few months, what’s your impression of the program and the content?
I have really enjoyed the first four months of my program. Coming from a research based program in Canada, I like being able to study a more immediately applicable degree. I still remain interested in research but I like that this program allows me to have the best of both worlds (interacting with people and research). The UQ Pharmacy School has an honors program where you can start a research option in your 3rd year (though this may change to 4th year in the next few years). One difficult part of the content is the legislature and health care system of Australia. Being new in the country the information does not come to me as intuitively as it might have if I was studying in Canada. However, it is still manageable content.
What is it like to study at the PACE building?
The UQ Pharmacy School has a new campus called Pharmacy Australia Center of Excellence. It is a state of the art building a few kilometers from UQ‘s main campus. The main reason that I like PACE is that it is so easy to access our lecturers and tutors because everyone is in the same vicinity. The only draw back that I have found is that I am clueless when it comes to navigating around UQ‘s main campus – we still have one course on main campus- but whenever I have to go there there are always other people relying on their maps and GPS systems to get around.
How do you like living in Queensland? What do you like best? least?
Queensland is gorgeous! I grew up in Kenya and had lived in Canada for 6 years before moving here and I find that Queensland is a happy medium between Kenya and Canada. The temperature is wonderful in my opinion. We are currently in the middle of winter and to me it still feels like early spring in Canada. I love being so close to the ocean, but I wish that the school of pharmacy had a campus right at the beach. One big inconvenience about Queensland is the cost of transportation. Students get a discounted price to travel around but I still have to budget about $100 per month for public transport here.
What’s the most memorable moment you’ve had since first arriving in Australia?
One of my most memorable moments since coming to Australia is having just come back from the Gold Coast one evening, I walked into my bathroom to find a huge huntsman spider on my wall. It was so frightening, but luckily one of my housemates helped me get rid of it. But the wildlife is not all frightening! I do like looking out of my window and seeing the friendly Kookaburra bird that perches on the tree near my room.
What do you hope to accomplish in your first year of pharmacy school?
My main goal for this year is to make it into the honors program at the school of pharmacy. There are a lot of interesting research programs here and I would love to be able to get involved in one of them starting next year.
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Tags: Australian Pharmacy Schools in Australia, OzTREKK, Study in Australia, University of Queensland, UQ, UQ Pharmacy School