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Phlames: Striking the Right Match
PhLames: Striking the right match
New mentoring program helps students make connections
UIC student pharmacists have a wealth of resources for learning outside the classroom, from hundreds of talented peers to a plethora of student groups. Last year, the college launched a long-sought mentoring and professional-development program to ensure students get the most of these opportunities.
Called PhLAMES, the program aims “to help students broaden their horizons and set them up for success,” said Dr. James Lee, faculty coordinator for PhLAMES, which stands for Pharmacy Learning, Advising, Mentoring and Engagement for Students.
The program has two main components: network-based mentoring and co-curricular activities. It also encourages written goal-setting and reflections.
Pharmacy’s Sorting Hat
PhLAMES’ networking piece starts with pharmacy’s version of Wizarding School. Every student joins a “family” (or “Phamily”) consisting of one student from each year (P1-P4) and a faculty mentor. Families stay together all four years, meeting at least once a year. Placement happens randomly, via “a sort of ‘Harry Potter’ sorting hat, except with a mortar,” Lee said.
That “mortar hat” has already produced some surprisingly close bonding, said mentors Dr. Scott Benken and his wife, Dr. Jamie Benken. “Our students went as far as to make Phamily T-shirts, with nicknames,” Scott Benken said.
“Random placement also helps students meet a variety of peers. With 760 students and 170 faculty between Chicago and Rockford, valuable connections can easily get missed,” Lee said.
“We want them to potentially meet people that are different from them, have different backgrounds and experiences,” Lee said.
PhLAMES also broadens connections through near-peer mentoring within families, pairing P4s with P2s and P3s with P1s. That really helps early career students, Lee said.
“It’s just good to have someone close … to help you through whatever issues you’re having,” said Kavya Vaitla, who met with her P3 family member last year. “They’ve been through it all before, and if they haven’t been through it themselves, they know someone who has.”
The student-to-faculty connections PhLAMES encourages can bring a different set of benefits. Dr. Ashley Hall, assistant professor of forensic science, brought one of her PhLAMES mentees into her lab to work on DNA profiles.
“It was a good chance for a pharmacy student to see how research, and forensic science, work, and for my students to interact with a Pharm.D. student!” Hall said. “Without the interaction at family meetings, this wouldn’t have been possible.”
Beyond student opportunities, PhLAMES also helps UIC pharmacy faculty network with one another, Lee said.
Staying active
By making student-group and professional-development activities requirements, PhLAMES helps move valuable co-curricular activities up busy students’ to-do lists, Lee said. Activities range from counseling the public at health fairs to attending professional-development seminars.
“These opportunities have always been available,” he said. “The problem is that … it gets punted down the priority list. So we wanted to create this inducement.”
EDUCATION
Listing activities as PhLAMES requirements has the added benefit of boosting numbers for student organizations, said Magdalena Mastalerz, P3, secretary of Phi Lambda Sigma and president of the Polish American Pharmacist Association (PAPA) at UIC.
“People have a lot of incentive to come to these events [now],” Mastalerz said. “Then, they may … decide they want to join the organization. So it’s really boosted the organizational life at UIC.” PhLAMES’ helped PAPA, for example, double attendance at its events over the semester, Mastalerz said.
That increased engagement has already opened students’ eyes, Lee said, helping them put course knowledge to practical use.
DR. JAMES LEE Faculty Coordinator for PhLAMES
