August 9, 2018
U-M AAPS Student Chapter members volunteering at a local Alzheimer's Walk.

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) at the University of Michigan has won the organization’s Student Chapter of the Year Award. The award recognizes student chapters that have provided exceptional service and outreach during the course of the year. The chapter will receive $1,000, which will support future student-led initiatives. 

“Our AAPS student chapter has had a remarkable year and is worthy of this highest recognition,” says James Dalton, PhD, Dean and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the U-M College of Pharmacy. “Their exceptional community service and outreach, innovative new 'mock tenure review,' and leadership of the recent Pharmaceutics Graduate Student Research Meeting (PGSRM) distinguished their activities at a national level.”

“Arguably, our largest undertaking during the last year was organizing and hosting PGSRM,” explains   Katie Cavanagh, pharmaceutical sciences PhD candidate and Vice-Chair of the U-M AAPS student chapter. “This meeting was planned and hosted solely by our student organization. Students from 12 other universities traveled to Ann Arbor to share their research and listen to invited speakers, who are leaders in the fields of government, academia, and industry.”

“The chapter executed and engaged in many professional development events during the year, including our biweekly journal club, the implementation of new student mentoring by more senior graduate students, a mock tenure review seminar, and an industry tour of Zoetis,” continues Katie. “Our philanthropic events included volunteering at the local Alzheimer's Walk and with the XPlore Engineering summer program for 4th-7th grade students, as well as running food and school supply drives. We also do many internal social/networking events.”

“It is great to be recognized for all the work we put into many different events throughout the year.  The prize money will have a huge impact on our ability to achieve the social, professional, and philanthropic missions of our chapter,” notes Katie. “Two main goals in our chapter right now are to increase camaraderie among graduate students and to host more professional development events.  Our student members come from a variety of backgrounds (both professionally and personally), and these additional funds will allow us to serve the needs of more students. This prize will go a long way to help us diversify our programming and better serve more of our members.”