Meet Elaine Fries: Making the Most of It

Story by: Guest Contributor

First posted on 08-08-2007

Pharmacy Student Uses Time at UMKC TO Learn To Help Others

Elaine Fries stands out from the crowd with her academic enthusiasm, leadership and her cheery smile.

As the first professional college graduate in her family on both her parents’ sides, Fries has fully embraced her time at UMKC and enjoyed the experiences along the way.

“I like that the faculty teach us problem solving,” Fries said. “It’s one thing to memorize facts, but it’s quite another to learn how to get from point A to point B. We have Pharmacy faculty members who are willing to do anything they can to help us succeed.”

The American Pharmacist Association (APhA) and Academy of Student Pharmacists (ASP) recognized Fries’ volunteer work for the Jackson County Free Health Clinic by awarding her the 2006 Student Pharmacist One-to-One Patient Counseling Recognition Award.

Cameron Lindsey, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Pharmacy, nominated Fries for the award.

“Elaine has been a true inspiration to me as an educator and to her peers over her tenure as a student,” Lindsey said. “Elaine truly will be an asset to the profession and a model for all of us, future and present pharmacists, to aspire to walk in her shoes.”

In between classes and her work at Truman Medical Center’s Hospital Hill pharmacy, Fries is fully involved in activities such as Phi Lambda Sigma, the Operation Diabetes Committee, Project Outreach, and acts as the ASP liaison to UMKC pharmacy students.

Ricky Ogden, Fries’ classmate and fiancé, shares her passion for pharmacy.

Ogden has been recognized by the UMKC Student Affairs division as an Outstanding Student Council Leader for the campus. In addition to UMKC and pharmacy activities, he and his father are committed volunteers to the Boy Scouts of America.

Ogden feels a quote from baseball legend Roberto Clemente perfectly summarizes his outlook on life: “Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth.”

Ogden enjoyed the diversity of student backgrounds within his own pharmacy school class and feels that, “We’re not a cookie-cutter school. It’s a huge melting pot of backgrounds and experiences among my classmates.”

Following their final year of preceptorships and experiential training, Fries and Ogden plan to wed in May 2007.

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