Joseph Glowienka

For Joseph Glowienka, the timing was perfect. He graduated from Binghamton University in 2017 with a degree in biochemistry, and was enrolled in the University’s brand-new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences that same fall.

“I always liked the sciences and chemistry especially, as well as healthcare and being able to help people,” Glowienka said. “Pharmacy seemed like a logical choice – and Binghamton’s pharmacy school was my first choice.”

An Endwell native who graduated from Maine-Endwell High School, he wanted to stay local and was already familiar with Binghamton University, and he also hopes to remain in the area once he has his PharmD.

Clinical rotations give PharmD students an idea of what path they might want to follow upon earning their degrees. Glowienka and fellow second-year students spent the past summer in their first rotation in a community pharmacy. He was lucky to be placed at a CVS in Endwell, right near home, where he mostly shadowed pharmacists.

The P2 student said he’s learning toward hospital pharmacy following graduation, in part because it’s familiar to him. He’s been working at the UHS Wilson Medical Center pharmacy since spring 2018. “I can help people in a lot of different capacities as a pharmacist, but I feel like there are more opportunities in a hospital setting,” he said. “I’m getting a taste for it as a pharmacy student intern where I man the phones, deliver medications to the floors and things like that.”

Glowienka is looking forward to his clinical rotation in a hospital pharmacy setting in the spring. “We’re able to put in our preferences and hope for the best for where we’re assigned,” he said.

He’s also filling what spare time he has as a student ambassador and as treasurer of the student government that is being formed. “The school was just starting out and I saw being an ambassador as a good way to get involved when we were still in pre-Candidate status,” Glowienka said. “It was a way to pitch in and help ensure school was up and running and a success – my way of contributing.”

Ambassadors are a resource to interviewees on interview days. “We take prospective students on tours of the building and answer their questions from our student perspective,” he said. “And faculty sometimes need students for various projects so they’ll call us to help portray the school in a positive way.”

Glowienka said ambassadors have also participated when faculty have been interviewing for positions at the school and wanted to speak with students. “I remember speaking with Dr. Spinler [professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice] at her interview,” he said.

“A lot of bright interviewees have come through and it’s always very cool to see students get so excited with the school and ask how they can get involved. It’s contagious!”

As for the student government, we’re still working through the basics, setting up meetings, finishing up the constitution, Glowienka said. “And we are in the process of setting up a general body meeting to get first-years involved, so there’s a full plate there as well.”