RCC’s short-term training helps Casey Davis land a $20,000 Scholarship

Meet Casey Davis. She’s not your typical continuing education student, but she wisely used short-term training to her advantage to assist her with getting practical experience, gaining employment, and landing a $20,000 scholarship to the Pharmacy School at Campbell University.  

Davis is a senior at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. She is set to graduate this May with a degree in Integrated Health Sciences and a minor in Chemistry. Next fall, she will begin working on her Doctorate in Pharmacy.   

“It is a four-year program,” Davis says. “I will be a PharmD.”    

With a desire to become a pharmacist, Davis set out to learn more about the profession through RCC’s Pharmacy Technician program. The program is five months in length and is available online as well as face-to-face.   

“Pharmacy technicians are used in a variety of ways to support the work of a supervising pharmacist,” reads the RCC Health Occupations web page. “They assist licensed pharmacists as they provide medication and other health care products to patients. They may assemble prescriptions in a pharmacist’s absence, but the pharmacist must check the medication before it is dispensed to a patient.”  

And that’s what caught Casey’s attention as she researched schools offering the program.   

“I decided to take the program at Robeson Community College because it was readily available and there were classes available online,” Davis said. “I liked the diversity of the class that was available and that’s why I chose RCC.”   

“Taking the class can lead to many different career paths, such as compounding medications, putting in IVs, and giving vaccinations,” Davis said. “There’s a lot that you can do just from completing this class.”   

The class leads to a certificate, but students can also opt to become certified by passing a state licensure exam.   

“I just went for the certificate,” Davis said.   

Davis was familiar with RCC, being that she is a native of Robeson County and took classes here while she was in high school. She also completed the EMT basic course while in high school.   

“I hope to use all the knowledge I have gained, the background knowledge, and any medical experiences that I have and apply that to a career in pharmacy,” Davis said.   

Upon completion of the pharmacy tech program, Davis was able to obtain employment, giving her real-world experience in a retail pharmacy setting.   

“I work at Ingles Pharmacy as a Pharmacy Technician,” Davis said. “Taking the class did help with employment, it helped me get my foot in the door… before I took the class, I didn’t know anything about being a pharmacy tech, so this really gave me the knowledge I needed.”   

Davis said she had been working in retail prior to moving into a pharmacy setting and believes that work experience has helped her in being able to connect with patients face-to-face.   

“Working in retail, you get to interact with patients and staff, and the day goes by really fast,” Davis said. “If you work in the hospital setting, you make rounds like a doctor and work more with providers like doctors, nurses, and surgeons… they are both good paths, but I think I like the retail setting better.”   

When Casey first started her education journey, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do.   

“I knew I wanted to be somewhere in the medical field since I was in middle school,” she said. “I wanted to help people, so I tried volunteering with a couple of different places in Lumberton, and that kind of helped me see what area of medicine I liked the best.”   

Davis tried nursing but says “I didn’t really love that area of expertise, so that’s when I started looking at what my strong suites were as a student, and what piqued my interest in learning and how I could turn that into a career.”  

“I’m really good at chemistry, and so I started looking at what degrees and jobs you could get with a degree like that,” Davis stated. “So that’s kind of what led me to think about a career as a pharmacist.”   

With a goal in mind, Davis forged a pathway to make her dreams a reality, and recommends other students take time to discover their options.   

“I took time and explored what I liked and what I didn’t like,” Davis said. “I have really enjoyed my time at Western Carolina, but I took my time, and you know I really explored.”   

“There are a lot of opportunities out there, you just have to see what fits your interests,” Davis said. “I would say really look in your community on what experience you can get whether that’s volunteering, or it’s paid, I know that really helped me with my personal growth and getting my job.”   

“Getting into pharmacy school is a really big thing,” Davis said. “With being a pharmacy tech, it’s on my resume and it’s given me experience. Now I can talk about what it’s like to work in a pharmacy and I have knowledge I would have never had without taking the class.”    

Davis says she recommends Robeson Community College to everyone.   

“There’s a ton of different medical classes that people can take,” Davis said. “I know I’ve looked at probably every single one of them to see what I might love the best as far as choosing a career.”   

 “I would explore the options and take as many classes as you can because you never know until you’re actually in the classroom learning the material and then taking that experience into the workforce,” Davis adds. “I think that’s important to do when you’re deciding on a career, and you never know what doors a new job may open, so I definitely say, explore all the classes available.”   

To see a complete list of short-term training available in health occupations, please visit www.robeson.edu/healtho. New classes are added frequently, so be sure to continue to check back to see what new opportunities are available.   

Photo above: Casey (left) stands with a fellow co-worker at the Ingles Pharmacy in Waynesville. 

Photos below: Casey Davis continues her studies at Western Carolina University while being dually enrolled at Robeson Community College, studying in the pharmacy technician program online. Soon she will be headed to Campbell University on a $20,000 scholarship to become a PharmD.