Today we’d like to introduce you to Joy Nwoke.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Joy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Well. From a young age, I knew I was a “learner.” When I was four years old, my grandma would watch me while my three older sisters were in elementary school. The neighborhood we lived in was directly across the street from the school they attended. One day, I took an extra backpack in the house and walked across the road to the elementary school (without getting hit by a car – glory to God). I sat in a random classroom, and the teacher told me, “Sweetie, you’re not supposed to be here.” So, I left and started to wander the halls where I was miraculously met by a police officer and my oldest sister (real actual fact). My sister was able to call my grandma to come to pick me up and take me home. As you can see, I’ve taken some interesting steps to learn, and it does not stop here.
Fast forward to 2017; I became an honor grad from Georgia State University with a B.S. in Chemistry, concentration in Biochemistry (Go Panthers). Now, I am in my final year of Mercer University’s Doctor of Pharmacy program in Atlanta, GA looking forward to practicing in my #1 career choice! Arriving at this point in my life took a whole lot of Jesus, sleeplessness nights (iykyk), love, and overwhelming support from family and friends. Apart from being a pharmacy student, I create YouTube videos about my faith, pharmacy school, and natural hair journey. Also, I enjoy mentoring and learning new things. I’ve learned Spanish, which helped me on a medical mission trip last year in Santo Domingo, República Dominicana. I’ve learned how to play the guitar, which helped me lead worship in a campus ministry I chartered during my first year of pharmacy school (s/o: Bethel Campus Fellowship). One major new thing I recently learned is writing and illustrating children’s books, one of which I recently published on Amazon called “Go Away Coronavirus.”
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth road? No. Full of sufficient grace? Absolutely. My passion for learning definitely clashes with time. The majority of new things I began learning started in pharmacy school – a doctoral program, so you can imagine the workload. There are only so many hours in a day to pray, study (pharmacy and the Bible), practice Spanish and guitar, conduct institutional research, mentor youth and young adults, serve in organizational leadership roles, organize & execute outreach projects, record and edit videos – did I mention sleep and eat? There’s just so much I want to do, and I enjoy everything I set out to do. I’d love to come to a place of being a master of all trades, but I have learned to appreciate the beauty of growth and progress. There’s so much encouragement in knowing where I was yesterday is not where I am today, and where I’ll be tomorrow will be better than today. Grace, simply defined, is unmerited favor. God has certainly given me unmerited favor to learn a multitude of “non-related” skills while upholding me through the struggles of pharmacy school.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
As a P4 (fourth-year pharmacy student), I am currently navigating through my clinical rotations. I’m in a unique program called the Advanced Clinical Track (ACT), which is like a “mini-residency.” After applying and interviewing with several hospitals, I matched with a site, and there I am completing the majority of my training and conducting my research project. My experience thus far, has been challenging yet exciting. I desire to be a well-rounded pharmacist, able to aid adults and children… but especially children. I absolutely love kids; my heart explodes with JOY (pun intended) in their presence. I want to do two years of residency to specialize in pediatric pharmacotherapy; the first year of residency is general, but the second year is specializing. I am so happy to be at a hospital that has neonates as well as adults. While I am learning how to manage adults, I am learning about managing neonates, too, which is not heavily taught in pharmacy school.
My research project consists of me retrospectively evaluating glucose gel used for the reversal of neonatal hypoglycemia to optimize the care for hypoglycemic newborns in the mother-baby unit. Working on this project from scratch ignites me! Pharmacists are often inaccurately viewed as “pill counters” or assumed just to put pills in a bottle, but that is far from the truth. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes where pharmacists are making real-life changes and interventions in care through research and other avenues, and I hope my project goes to show that. In addition to my project, I’ve spent the last two years volunteering at Camp Kudzu, a camp for children with Type 1 diabetes. I’ve been invited to high schools and elementary programs to speak with youth about pharmacy. I cared for children during a medical mission trip in the DR, and I have organized health fairs that cater to adults and peds. Writing and illustrating my first children’s book to explain COVID-19, to empower and educate youths, is something I hope to do with other disease states too. As you can see, I am very passionate about pediatrics and pharmacy. I am growing to reach the goal of putting the two together while working with the resources I have now.
As for what sets me apart, I am a woman of my word. If I say I will learn something, I will do just that. I know I said God had given me the grace to learn “non-related” topics earlier. Still, what I have learned in areas that are not directly about pharmacy, I have been able to use in conjunction with pharmacy. For example, learning how to record and edit videos has helped me vlog my pharmacy experience and disseminate information about diseases such as COVID-19. Learning how to illustrate on Adobe (a foreign language in itself if you ask me lol) has helped me create captivating images to bring what I wrote in my children’s book to life. Learning Spanish helped me to communicate with children during my visit to the DR and Cuba. I do not shy away from challenges, and I am not comfortable with complacency. I am a woman with a vision, mission, and plan, taking active steps to turn a dream into a living.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite childhood memory is acting in school plays! From being the narrator of “Keros in the Woods” to playing Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet,” I have always enjoyed being an animated character!
Contact Info:
- Email: staynwoke@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/staynwoke/
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-nwoke-962b39144
https://www.youtube.com/staynwoke
Image Credit:
Darren Onyirimba
Joy Nwoke
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