UACOP is going to Thailand!

On August 4, 18 UA College of Pharmacy students will be in Bangkok to start a 10 day pharmacy study abroad experience. This will be our 4th annual study abroad trip, and our 2nd time to Thailand. The students participating in the trip, all 2nd year (P2) students, seem excited about their upcoming experience. Two years ago we had 8 students on the Thailand trip, so having 18 will be more challenging from an organization and logistics standpoint. Supranee Soontornprueksa, a student who participated in the trip 2 years ago will be helping me supervise the experience, and Supranee's aunt, Jonglak Kit will again be our tour guide. Families, please be assured we will take good care of your student.

My goals for the students who participate on this trip are simple--I want them to learn about pharmacy practice and education in Thailand, and I want them to learn a about about Thai culture.  The UA students will have the opportunity to interact with Thai students from our hosts, Mahidol University and Chulalongkorn University, and my hope is that the students will develop long-standing relationships and stay in touch long after they graduate. For many students, having an international experience can be truly life-changing.  My secret goal (maybe no so secret now) is to change the world (at least the pharmacy parts of the world) one student at a time.

The trip will consist of about half pharmacy-related experience and "cultural experiences", aka sightseeing, socializing and eating LOTS of amazing food. For the pharmacy experiences, we will visit both host universities and several hospitals and community pharmacies.  Most of the arrangements were made by Dr. Lakkana (Jane) Suwannoi from Mahidol University (and one of my former residents) and Dr. Krittin (Top) Bundithankul from Chulalongkorn University.  Many thanks to Jane and Top for all their help.  We have a variety of sightseeing excursions planned, within Bangkok (Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun and others) and outside of Bangkok (floating market, Ayatthuya, Pattaya). While many students are familiar with Thai food, we will be eating in mostly non-tourist, "where the locals go" places and we will encourage the students to be adventurous. Our schedule is pretty packed, but we want the students to experience as much as possible during our short stay.

I have asked each student to share their experiences in this blog, not only travelogue summaries of what they did, but also their impressions, thoughts and reactions to their experiences.  The blog is openly accessible for reading by anyone, and I hope the students' writings will be shared within the UA College of Pharmacy Community and students' family and friends. You also can react to and share your impressions of the students' postings in the comment box after each posting.

All 20 of us are looking forward to our trip, and I hope you enjoy reading about it.

Mike