[Rx2021] Announcement and Weekly Report: 11/06-11/10

[Kashkoush, Mohamed Adam]

Class of 2021,

The Jones Family assignment deadline for Monday 11/6 at 12pm will not be extended. Please check courseweb for the assignment details, as there are many components. The primary reason for this is because the PPC course coordinators want to ensure that they can return your graded assignments with feedback in order for you to adequately prepare for the Standardized Patient Final, which is quickly approaching (11/17 and 11/20, worth 29% of our grade). However, there is an optional extra-credit assignment that was initially planned for Monday, but now that assignment will be extended to Friday, November 10th (please see Courseweb).

I realize that this is not what everyone wants to hear from the faculty, but please consider a few of my own thoughts on this matter:

Of course nobody enjoys spending late nights and weekends grinding away at biochemistry and physician consult letters, but these short-term struggles will lead to long-term pleasures that completely eclipse the pains. I can't think of anything more meaningful in life than the relationships we form, and can say with certainty that some of the strongest relationships are formed through collectively overcoming adversity and then celebrating when it's over. Study alongside your classmates and embrace each other - I guarantee that everybody will make it through next week if we support one another and that we will have a stronger community as a direct result. And that's what really counts.

Next, as I'm sure many of you have heard, P2 and P3 year are going to be significantly more difficult than P1 year. The faculty are well aware of our busy schedule since they plan exams/assignments together before every semester, but this is simply the level of difficulty that we should expect in order to become the best pharmacists that we can be for our patients. That is not to say that extensions are never warranted. It means that if you have a personal issue or external reason for an extension, you should absolutely request one. Based on some of the comments I've received, I am not sure all of us understand how helpful and reasonable Dr. McGivney is and how much she cares about the success of every single one of us. She sincerely expressed a desire to accommodate any student who needs it. But the notion of the whole class getting an extension typically does not fall into that category.

I'm not going to pretend like I know what is best for everyone, but I want to be as transparent as possible and in my opinion the extension on the optional assignment is more than reasonable. Regardless of how you feel about where I stand on this issue, I hope that everyone knows that I will never say one thing to a professor and another thing to any of you. This is pretty much a summary of our conversation. You should also know that I didn't express any of these views until after Dr. McGivney responded to the request, because I would never sabotage what the majority of the class wants simply because I personally disagree with it. That being said, I am wrong at least once every single day. If anything I've said you disagree with, I sincerely want you to express this to me - I don't want to be right, I just want to arrive at the honest truth through open communication and respectful disagreement. I am leaving for Ohio tomorrow for the weekend to meet my soon-to-be-sister-in-law's parents but will do my best to respond in a timely manner.

Finally, the weekly report is attached here and will be posted on Facebook later tonight. Have a great weekend!


Best wishes,


Mo Kashkoush, B.S.
University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy
PharmD Student | Class of 2021
Email: mokashkoush at pitt.edu
Cell: (484) 387-0627
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