February 28, 2012
Elsen and Susan Jacob — twin sisters who earned their Pharm.D.
degrees in May 2011 — share a lifelong commitment to helping those
in need.
Graduates of the
College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, they are
well on their way to becoming successful healthcare providers. At
24, each is a post-graduate resident at a top-ranked teaching
hospital. Elsen is at Brigham and Women’s
Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical
School; Susan, at Yale-New Haven
Hospital.
Bonded in ways that only twins can be, they roomed and studied
together at St. John’s, even sharing the same mentors. “By the time
we started,” said Susan, “we realized that we worked well as a
team.” Elsen added, “We felt that by doing everything together,
we’d each get more out of our college experience.”
Both earned admission to the
Rho Chi Society and
Phi Lambda Sigma, the highest pharmaceutical academic and
leadership honor societies. They were also selected for membership
by the University’s
President’s Society — the first time more than one student from
Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions has been inducted in the
same year.
Insatiable learners with a desire to make a difference,
Elsen and Susan took advantage of service as well as academic
opportunities. “I was very impressed,” said
John Conry, Pharm.D., Associate Clinical Professor and Project
Renewal Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator,” by their
contributions to the Project
Renewal team.” The project is an ambulatory healthcare service
for the homeless. “Their compassionate and professional care was
very inspiring.”
In addition, the sisters played a major role in helping the Vincentian
Center for Church and Society raise money for global HIV/AIDS
relief on World AIDS
Day. They also joined
Campus Ministry plunges, Student
Government, the
Vincentian Initiative to Advance Leadership (V.I.T.A.L), the UN
Path to Peace Summit and the agency’s annual Global Leadership
Conference.
“While the service experiences were eye-opening,” said Susan,
“our clinical fieldwork was life-changing.” The five-month rotation
program in partnership with New York
Presbyterian Hospital helped the sisters realize they wanted to
earn medical degrees in addition to their pharmaceutical
credentials.
They were so intrigued by their introduction to diagnostics that
they elected to go beyond the program’s requirements and volunteer
at New York Presbyterian’s emergency room.
Elsen’s and Susan’s close relationship was shaped not only by being
twins, but by their formative experiences growing up in India with
missionary grandparents, a clergyman father and a mother who
teaches.
“My most vivid memory,” said Susan, “is meeting people from all
walks of life when we accompanied our father on his ministerial
visits. We were especially impacted by how he interacted with
everyone he helped — something we strive to emulate in our own
practices.”
These values came into play when they selected a college. “St.
John’s mission was the right match for us,” said Susan. “One visit
and we were sold.”
Next on their agenda is getting into a top-tier medical school.
“Our goal is to make quality healthcare accessible to all,” said
Elsen, “especially in third-world countries where no system
currently exists.”