Tarik Ramadan

During the summer following my freshman year of college, I worked in the Department of Surgery at the Columbia University Medical Center as a short-term research coordinator assistant. This was an invaluable experience as I was able to directly interact with patients for the first time in my life. I would often accompany a research coordinator to conduct a survey and/or physical test with a patient, typically one that was awaiting or had just undergone a liver transplant, to see how their health may be physically or mentally affecting them. Building personal connections with patients and being able to talk with them were aspects of this position I greatly valued. Additionally, this was my first experience being able to use my Spanish in a working environment as I regularly translated for patients that did not speak English. Aside from dealing with patients, I also dealt with basic tasks in the office space such as managing and updating patient records, sorting and organizing files, and I even worked on a research project with one of the doctors to analyze possible correlations between race, age, and other factors among liver transplant patients in the database.

One of the main projects I worked on over the summer included organizing, filing, packaging, and shipping out large quantities of past prescriptions from various Columbia pharmacy locations. This project was a significant undertaking given the number of files, however, it was critical for both the pharmacy and pharmacists. Specifically, the pharmacy planned to move pharmacists to alternate locations, but were unable to do so until I completed that project.

Another frequent task was delivering prescription medications to patients throughout the New York-Presbyterian Hospital building (Columbia University is affiliated with New York-Presbyterian) once they were prepared by a pharmacist and ready to be delivered. I was asked more often than not to deliver the medications to oncology patients who required these medications as soon as possible. I was also asked to take inventory of drugs present in the pharmacy and to scan incoming prescriptions.

This was my first stint at Columbia University Irving Medical Center Research Pharmacy as I would come in on some weekends to assist with any tasks that needed to be completed within the pharmacy that I was permitted to perform.

I worked as a Counselor in Training (CIT) at Camp Hillard in Scarsdale, New York, for four consecutive summers starting when I was 12 and finishing when I was 15. I enjoyed the experience of working with the kids and learning from the counselors. This was my first working experience in my life.