![\"UConn](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dean-Committee-Photo.jpg\")
<\/a>Current members are Aileen Yum-Chan, P1 and Ethan Wang, P1; Heather Honor, P2 \u00a0(Chair) and Kamilla Borsai, P2; and Michael Vessicchio, P3 (Treasurer) and Sayali Oak, P3, (Secretary).<\/p>\n
According to Honor, the committee has been a great way for her to get more involved with the School of Pharmacy. She says, \u201cI have enjoyed the time I have been involved. This committee does a lot of work to help maintain good faculty and student relationships. It has brought iClickers, more interaction between students and faculty during classes, and has even begun finding ways to help out transfer students.\u201d<\/p>\n
The list of the group\u2019s achievements is long and includes some things that may at first glance seem inconsequential but are nevertheless important to students, and other things that will have a lasting impact on future classes.<\/p>\n
Current treasurer Michael Vessicchio says, \u201cThis committee was the first organization I joined at the School of Pharmacy and it helped me get to know many of the faculty as well as my fellow students. We help in any way possible, from small things like making sure we have tissues and cutlery in the student kitchen, to much larger goals related to increasing communication between students and faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the more far-reaching achievements include working with transfer students to improve their application and integration process, communicating improvements to ExamSoft assessment software to students, and facilitating Town Hall meetings that establish a safe and comfortable environment for students and faculty to voice their opinions.<\/p>\n
PGY1 Sarah Warack, who is a resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, has a graduate\u2019s impression of the Dean\u2019s Student Liaison Committee based on her experiences as the committee\u2019s first Chair. \u00a0\u201cFrom the beginning, \u201cshe says, \u201cwe met weekly without the dean and we discussed what we thought were important issues from the student perspective.<\/p>\n
We would then meet with Dean Halpert. He was great about letting us set the agenda so that we could bring up issues that had previously gone unresolved.\u00a0 When we met with him, he gave us his perspective and he figured out solutions that either he could implement or he would tell us whom to contact within the administration. One of the best things about the committee is that it gave us the autonomy to bring up issues that were really important to us whenever they occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n
As pharmacists, whether in community, academic, hospital, or industry settings, one of the things that sets UConn School of Pharmacy graduates apart is their leadership ability.\u00a0 The Dean\u2019s Student Liaison Committee helps hone that skill.<\/p>\n
Halpert says, \u201cI really enjoy interacting with students and while our primary mission is to give them the best possible pharmacy education, we also have a responsibility to help them grow as leaders. We want them to take ownership of their careers and their place in the larger community. If being a member of this Committee helps do that, I think we\u2019ve achieved our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds, \u201cThis has been a terrific experience for me personally, because it helps me to understand how today\u2019s students think. We hear so much about polarization in our country, based on politics, age, ethnicity, and geography. In that context I have found it incredibly gratifying to discover that a baby boomer and millennials can find common ground.\u201d<\/p>\n