“I must have shaken the right hands at the Capitol,” third-year PC School of Pharmacy student Jay Patel joked about his time in Washington, DC last summer.

Last July, Patel, the president of PCSP’s chapter of the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Students of Pharmacy, attended the organization’s Summer Leadership Institute in the nation’s capital.

South Carolina legislators were so impressed with Patel that the South Carolina State Society invited him to the Presidential Inauguration Ball.

“I am excited to potentially be a voice for student pharmacists across the nation,” Patel said.

While in Washington last year, Patel discussed President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and the healthcare reform with state legislators, including South Carolina Congressman Jeff Duncan.

Patel also attended a series of educational sessions designed to hone his and other APhA-ASP officers’ leadership skills. Patel strives to apply the skills he learned at the Summer Leadership Institute and excel in the pharmacy profession.

“I’m excited about attending an event as prestigious as the Presidential Inauguration Ball,” Patel said. “It will be a great opportunity to meet with superior leaders of the nation and network with successful professionals.”

In addition to being president of the PCSP chapter of the APhA-ASP, Patel is also a member of several organizations: Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, National Community Pharmacists Association, Kappa Epsilon (a national professional pharmacy fraternity), South Carolina Pharmacists Association (SCPhA), and the Center for Entrepreneurial Development.