I often smile thinking of those undergrad years at Carleton. Surrounded by such a fresh, inquisitive, and cerebral student body and being mentored by talented, smart, enthusiastic faculty have made my decision to attend the college one of my best ever. I knew I would end up in health care, but I wasn’t quite sure how I would get there. Everyone always said, “it doesn’t matter what you study at Carleton…you can do anything with your degree” and I was doubtful. When I took my first art history class in Italian Renaissance Art, I was hooked. I found the next four years of college filled with term papers, reading, analyzing, deciphering, and interpreting various periods of history in art—from Italian to Japanese to Modern, to Islamic to Buddhist Art—and I loved it.
After graduating Carleton, I went to pharmacy school at the University of Minnesota to earn my doctorate of pharmacy. I was 1 of 100 students with an art history background. Most had biochem, chemistry or biology degrees. I thrived in a tough science curriculum, graduating with honors at the University. I can assert that the Carleton Art History program taught me to be a critical thinker. Even when I am reading a new clinical trial, I am using critical thinking skills. You may assume that science is black and white, but it is not. And in my daily life, when I read journal articles from the New England Journal of Medicine, I am interpreting another investigator’s results and data for myself, so that I can make a solid medical interpretation and recommendation for my patients, for the nurses and for the physicians. Or when a pharmaceutical representative from Pfizer or Novartis stops in to debrief me on their newest med, I politely listen to their presentation and then ask for the clinical trial data so that I can fully understand the safety and efficacy profiles of the medication. If there is one thing I’ve learned it is “don’t believe what others tell you—prove it for yourself” I always ask myself, “where is the evidence?” These critical thinking skills began all the way back with art history at Carleton.
Currently, I am the PIC (Pharmacist-In-Charge) at CVS/Pharmacy in West St Paul, MN. I love my job! My long-time love and fellow Carl, Paul Novotny ’00 and I were married in 2008. As far as art history directly impacting our daily lives, we are both members of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and I proudly display some art history books on my coffee tables for guests to enjoy…