PharmD student broadens perspective through Massey College junior fellowship

Junior fellowship allows Setayesh Yazdani to engage with students from wide range of disciplines across U of T

As a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) student, Setayesh Yazdani (2T5) has already had a range of experiences in her professional education – lab-based and policy research, patient care in different settings, and military training. She is now a junior fellow at U of T’s Massey College, interacting with students from across the university and adding new perspectives to her worldview.

“Massey College is a great place to meet people from different backgrounds, engage in different discussions, and open up your mind,” says Yazdani. “There is a mentorship program, networking events, and opportunities to socialize and make friends. It touches every aspect of your life and helps you grow and become a more well-rounded person.”

Yazdani has pursued several educational opportunities at U of T, first as an undergraduate student in biomedical toxicology, then a master’s student in the department of pharmacology and toxicology. She enjoyed her research and was interested in studying drugs, but her passion for patient care pulled her toward a pharmacy career to combine her interests. She is currently pursuing her PharmD at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy through the Canadian Armed Forces’ Regular Officer Training Plan, with the intent to become a military pharmacist.

In the fall of 2023, she became a junior fellow at U of T’s Massey College. Junior fellows are students from graduate and professional programs from across U of T. The College brings these students together to broaden their perspectives, share knowledge from their backgrounds and work together to benefit society. In the months she has been at Massey College, Yazdani has enjoyed the opportunities to learn from the other junior fellows and bring those new perspectives to her pharmacy education, but also to share her knowledge and passions developed through the PharmD program, especially related to pharmaceutical policy and advocacy.

“Junior fellows have opportunities to organize events about all kinds of topics they are passionate about,” says Yazdani. “As a pharmacy student, I’m very interested in discussing topics such as substance use disorder, access to drugs, and the expanded scope of pharmacists in Ontario, and I can share those with the other junior fellows.”

She recently invited a pharmacist from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) to present to junior fellows about substance use disorders and stigma. She participated in a small group discussion about access to drugs for rare diseases with Jillian Kohler, professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and senior fellow at Massey College, along with a U of T law student and representatives from academia and patient groups.

She has also been able to share her personal interests and culture with the other fellows. Born and raised in Iran, Yazdani hosted a language table where she taught Farsi to students and is planning an upcoming celebration for the Persian New Year, Nowruz.

Yazdani encourages students to look for interdisciplinary opportunities  

Yazdani says that the opportunities to engage with the junior fellows at Massey College from across the university has broadened her perspectives. This has been helpful in her career path as she considers options of policy and research in pharmacy. She encourages students to look for opportunities to engage with people from a wide range of disciplines.

“We have an amazing community of pharmacists and health care professionals to interact with, and by going beyond this circle, we can expand our horizons and see things from a different angle that we might not otherwise have seen."

“We have an amazing community of pharmacists and health care professionals to interact with, and by going beyond this circle, we can expand our horizons and see things from a different angle that we might not otherwise have seen,” she says.

“I encourage students to look for ways to be involved with people from other fields, whether through a fellowship like this, a university club, or just socializing and networking with people beyond the pharmacy program. Stepping outside our field can help promote the pharmacy profession and build interprofessional collaborations that we need to solve bigger problems.”