Olivia Love
Staff Writer
Maygen Cardona is a current student at ISU’s pharmacy school. She is in her second-to-last year of the program and has been given an impressive opportunity for her last year.
The final year of pharmacy school is meant for a student to gain experience in the field.
Cardona applied and received a rotation with the FDA in the office of minority health. She is the first student at ISU to ever be awarded a position like this.
“It feels great,” Cardona said. “When I applied my coordinator said it was a long shot and I didn’t think I would get it, so I was really excited when I did.”
Along with being awarded the position with the FDA, Cardona is the president of the Pharmacy Leadership Society and has been an active participant in the pharmacy program’s outreach projects.
It does not end there.
In addition to all these other things Cardona is involved in, she is also an officer in the United States military. Although difficult, she thinks this has been a great benefit to her.
“I think it’s helped me because I get a lot of experience in a very specific branch. We get to serve veterans or work on Native American reservations, it’s pretty cool,” Cardona said.
When applying for the position, she specifically selected the field of minority health.
This area of work is especially important to Cardona since she is biracial and has seen both sides of healthcare.
“I just have a passion for giving back to the community I come from and hopefully advancing minority health overall,” Cardona said.
Cardona was kind enough to share a tip for other students to utilize.
During the application process for this position as well as others, Cardona explained that many students think that it is a disadvantage to come from Idaho since it is a relatively small state.
“A lot of times people think coming from Idaho is a disadvantage but I think it can totally be an advantage,” Cardona said.
In her applications she played up the fact that she may not have as many opportunities coming from such a rural area.
As to what she does next, Cardona is open-minded. She wants to do a residency but is also thinking of staying with the military and seeing where that takes her.
