Fourth-year pharmacy student Leah Burns is excited to return to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center campus as the new president of the Student Government Association Executive Council (SGAEC).
“The pandemic changed our student learning experience and how we interact with each other,” Burns said. “Last year was long and isolating for many of us, but also came with a lot of lessons. UTHSC’s first-year students haven’t had the opportunity to interact in person, so one of the things I’m most excited about is coming together and making that one of SGAEC’s top priorities. It’s all about having a sense of enthusiasm.”
As SGAEC president, Burns also serves as the student representative for the UTHSC Advisory Board. “It’s exciting to be able to express the views of students across all the colleges,” she said. “Several campus organizations are represented on the SGAEC, so to share student feedback with the board and vice versa is great. UTHSC is very student-centered, and it shows.”
Burns considers Huntsville, Alabama, home. Her father served in the Air Force, so she has lived in many places. She completed her undergraduate studies at Auburn University, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. She chose UTHSC to further her education because of its affordability, thanks to the College of Pharmacy’s expanded regional tuition program. The program expands its regional tuition rate to pharmacy students living out of state within a 200-mile radius of the college’s instructional sites in Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville.
Another bonus for Burns was the college’s dual-degree program offerings. “The programs line up with my aspirations,” said Burns, who is completing her master’s degree in business administration while she pursues her Doctor of Pharmacy degree through the college’s PharmD/MBA Dual Degree program. “The goal is to work as a clinical pharmacist in a large hospital for a few years after that and eventually hospital administration.”
