Hanan (Sara) Ali and Marian Tan, student pharmacists in the UC Irvine School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, have been awarded by the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP).
Ali was awarded the Joseph H. Beckerman Memorial Scholarship. Established in honor of Dr. Beckerman, a CSHP leader and past president of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), the scholarship is awarded to students who “demonstrate characteristics that were important to [him]: ethical behavior, professionalism, leadership, caring, and compassion.”
Ali was president-elect of UCI’s founding Student Societies of Health-System Pharmacists (SSHP) chapter, which was officially recognized by CSHP within the first year of the chapter’s establishment. The chapter earned ASHP recognition the year after.
“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity, as it is highly selective — only one student in California wins this scholarship,” she said. “Dr. Beckerman’s family picks the recipient, so I was originally notified by his daughter, Carol Beckerman, who called me to congratulate me. Receiving the Joseph H. Beckerman Memorial Scholarship is a true honor, symbolizing my passion for pharmacy and my desire to contribute to team-based patient care. I am committed to carrying on Dr. Beckerman’s legacy through my hard work and dedication to the field of pharmacy.”
Tan is the recipient of a Student Leadership Award from CSHP. Presented annually, the award honors those who serve as leaders to their fellow students and contribute to SSHP/CSHP. The award is typically given to one student pharmacist per California school of pharmacy. Tan was the 2023-2024 president of the SSHP chapter at UCI.
“I feel so honored to have received this distinction and I want to extend my appreciation to my faculty advisors, Dr. Christine Cadiz and Dr. Lee Nguyen, who have been instrumental in my CSHP and SSHP journey,” Tan shared. “Through the organization, I was able to find out more about the different roles of pharmacists, and I wanted to impart this information to my fellow student pharmacists. As a past board member of ASHP/CSHP/SSHP at UCI, I was glad to have done that. I hope to continue to inspire other student pharmacists to be curious and be involved in organizations like CSHP, which can enrich our pharmacy careers.”
