Week 3:
National Association of Chain Drug Stores

July 8, 2013

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! The festivities in Washington, D.C. are unlike anything you have ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of people come out to the parade and fireworks on the National Mall. After a full day of museums, touring the Capitol and Library of Congress, and eating great food, we walked to the National Mall to see the fireworks. It is pretty difficult to get a clear, unobstructed view of the monuments (especially since they are working on the Washington Monument), but we were pretty close. Being in such a historic city, on the most patriotic day of the year, is truly something special. As you can see, we saw many places! It was so great to have my parents and girlfriend (Tara Doner ’15) experience this amazing city.

On July 5, we took a boat tour to Mt. Vernon, VA (the home of George Washington, not our beautiful city). It was so cool to see many of George Washington’s original artifacts and furniture. There were times when we were able to see his original bedroom, or even the bed he died in. It was really awe-inspiring. After Mt. Vernon, we visited the Smithsonian American History Museum. This is an absolute must whenever you visit D.C. They have some amazing artifacts, including an original stone from Plymouth Rock, a camera that was used to videotape some of the events of 9/11, and the china used by every president from the White House. They also had a large section of military memorabilia from every war since the Civil War and a section on the Civil Rights Movement. You could spend days in this museum and not see everything!

As far as work, it was a pretty short week. I found over 300 email addresses for many high-level healthcare executives and professionals. We are contacting them to be a part of our grant program. We are funding two grant opportunities to research creative ways to decrease healthcare spending, while also expanding the role of the pharmacist. I also created some questions for our national conference, the Total Store Expo. We are hosting a variety of talks and informational sessions about various healthcare topics, and it is my job to help create questions that will facilitate a discussion between our speakers and our audience. I have been researching these topics pretty thoroughly and have learned so much about the business and policy surrounding healthcare. I also worked on a few other things throughout the short week. We got off work at 3pm on Wednesday, and had the rest of the week off. Thankfully, we have an amazing CEO (Cornell Alum Steve Anderson)!

All in all, it has been an amazing several weeks. I am so thankful to be working with NACDS. I also am thankful for the wonderful and challenging education that I have been receiving at Cornell. Our professors and classes really do prepare students for the real world and the skills we put into practice everyday are incredibly valuable to future employers. Thanks, Cornell!