Congrats to Dr. Jenna Bloemer, Pharm.D., Ph.D. on receiving the Touro College Presidential Research Development Grant! "I am honored to receive this award from the Presidential Research Development Grant Program for my project titled “Investigating Alterations in Brain Adiponectin and Autophagy in Alzheimer's Disease.” This award will allow me to advance my research in this area with the goal of applying for highly competitive extramural funding in the future. I am very grateful to the selection committee for giving me this opportunity and to my colleagues at the Touro College of Pharmacy for their support."

Congrats to Kimberly Brafi, left, with her preclinical dean and professor Dr. Stephen Jones at the TouroCOM Middletown M.S. Class of ’21 graduation ceremonies held today. Kimberly is excited to be matriculating into the DO program in the fall! “This program helped shape me into a hardworking professional. I met some of the best professors of my academic career,” says Brafi. “At the start, I was a little nervous about the challenges before me. But with the guidance of my professors and family, I have become even more confident in my knowledge of science and medicine. The program pushed me to the best of my abilities.” Brafi’s pursuit of medicine evolved over time. After college she worked as a pharmacy tech at CVS and a scribe at a City MD. She shadowed doctors who encouraged her, though her MCAT score was not high and her science GPA was average. “Touro said, ‘If you work hard you can succeed.’ That’s what I liked about them,” she says. “There is always an open door. Choosing a medical school is not about popularity. It is about being in an environment where you can succeed.”

#FBF Congrats to the 100+ NYC high school students who recently graduated from Med Achieve, the afterschool enrichment program at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. The popular STEM program attracts local high school students, most of whom are underrepresented minorities in Harlem, who are interested in careers in science and medicine. Each student is paired with a DO student mentor who works with them on the foundations of medicine and how the body responds to stress, injury and disease. Students who meet certain criteria after college graduation are guaranteed a medical school interview at TouroCOM. At their virtual ceremony last month the students received accolades and certificates from their DO student mentors. “Med Achieve is a great program. It is filled with medical students who care about helping us and guiding us in the right direction,” said Kelly Toribio, who attends Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics in Harlem. “Med Achieve has introduced me to many new things, and gotten me thinking more about what I want to do in the future. I want to thank all the doctors who took the time to teach me and the rest of Med Achieve for challenging me. This was a new experience, and I enjoyed it!” Kudos to all!

As we approach the end of Occupational Therapy (OT) month, at the School of Health Sciences Bay Shore campus, second year OT student Cole Frendo is pictured with guest speaker Marc Werner from Long Island Orthotics and Prosthetics. Werner, who is a Certified Orthotist/Prosthetist, demonstrated to Cole and her fellow students how someone can control a bionic arm and hand control system, which picks up signals from myoelectric skin sensors, to live a better quality of life.

#Firstplace was bagged by our very own! 🏆 Congrats to second year #pharmacystudent and SPSSNY TCOP Chapter president, Momina Qureshi!! Winner of the Virtual Poster Presentation Competition at PSSNY's 2021 Annual Mid-Winter conference held in the month of January. “SPSSNY is an amazing platform for pharmacy students to go above and beyond the classroom to achieve their professional and academic goals. I am grateful TCOP has integrated how research is conducted in the curriculum. By doing so, I felt more prepared and confident in conducting this systematic review and participating in the mid-winter student poster competition.” #pssny #SPSSNY #touropharmacy #pharmacyschool #pharmacyeducation #pharm4me #research #pharmacyadvocacy #diabetes #tcop2023 #posterpresentation #touropride

#wednesdaywisdom #ralphwaldoemerson #ralphwaldoemersonquotes

Touro Graduate School of Social Work MSW candidate Lisa Rubin presented the results of her study on the effects of iPhone screen time addiction on Monday night at the New York Academy of Medicine. Social work practitioners, educators and social work graduate students from major social work schools in N.Y. participated in the annual event. For her Advanced Research course, Rubin used her Apple iPhone settings to track her screen time, measure her use and set alarms to remind her to put her phone down on schedule, in favor of activities like reading and exercising. Her efforts paid off and may be helpful with clients in clinical practice, she said. The design “can be an effective way to show how behavior impacts one’s life and the extent to which it can change with the help of intervention,” said Rubin, who noted she was on her phone much more than usual during COVID-19. “We were all kind of dependent and trying to find an escape.”

April is Occupational Therapy (OT) Month, a time dedicated to spreading awareness about this amazing field and the therapists helping individuals of all ages participate in activities that are meaningful to them while enhancing their patient's overall quality of life. To celebrate, School of Health Sciences OT students Rachel Drabczyk and Cole Frendo share their passion for the field. According to Drabczyk (left), “I’m passionate about OT because it offers endless flexibility and enables you to utilize creativity. Helping individuals develop/meet personal goals and collaborate with them to accomplish what is meaningful to them is inspiring. In the future, I hope to work as a pediatric occupational therapist to provide children with a strong foundation during the most critical developmental stages of their lives.” Frendo (right) says, “OT is one of the few types of therapies where clients get to help decide what treatment is best for them. There is so much diversity in this field, and so many different opportunities for work. With each new class, my opinion changes! Ultimately, I’d love to work with a pediatric population, but I’m excited for all the possibilities this career has to offer."