On the latest episode of “Victors in Grad School,” Dr. Christopher Lewis welcomes Tim Ekola, a pharmacist and accomplished leader, to share his inspiring journey through military service, pharmacy, and graduate education. Their conversation unpacks the evolving path of a lifelong learner, the power of relationships, and actionable advice for anyone considering the next step in their academic or professional journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Embracing the Educational Journey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Christopher Lewis opens the episode by acknowledging that everyone\u2019s educational journey is unique, filled with transitions and decisions that shape future success. Tim Ekola exemplifies this, having moved from military service to undergraduate studies, and eventually earning both a PharmD and an MBA. This nonlinear path serves as a powerful reminder that learning never really ends and it’s never too late to pursue further education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recognizing the Need for Growth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout his career, Tim Ekola noticed that progressing into leadership demanded more than clinical pharmacy skills\u2014it required a broader understanding of management, finance, and organizational development. This realization prompted him to seek graduate programs that would equip him with the necessary tools to lead effectively. By emphasizing the importance of self-assessment and readiness to grow, the conversation encourages listeners to reflect on their own career needs and aspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finding the Right Fit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Selecting the right graduate program is crucial, and Tim Ekela shares his approach of evaluating options that align with a busy professional life. He highlights the importance of flexibility, supportive faculty, and a diverse peer group, praising the University of Michigan-Flint\u2019s MBA program for its blend of in-person and online opportunities and the varied professional backgrounds of his classmates. These factors contributed not only to his academic success but also enriched his experience, underscoring the value of environment and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Power of Relationships<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A significant theme is the importance of building relationships with peers, faculty, and mentors. Tim Ekola emphasizes that relationships are often more valuable than credentials alone when it comes to career advancement and personal fulfillment. The bonds he formed during graduate school continue to support him professionally and personally, offering opportunities and friendships that extend well beyond graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Advice for Aspiring Graduate Students<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The episode closes with practical advice for anyone considering graduate school: have honest conversations with family and employers, prepare financially, develop strong time-management skills, and persevere even when the workload feels overwhelming. Above all, building a supportive network is key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ready for More?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re contemplating graduate school or searching for inspiration to take the next step, this episode delivers honest insights and encouragement. Hear more about Tim Ekola\u2019s journey and get actionable tips by tuning in to this episode of “Victors in Grad School.” Don\u2019t miss out on the wisdom that could shape your future!<\/p>\n\n\n\n TRANSCRIPT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:01]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:32]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:01:37]: Tim Ekola [00:01:47]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:01:48]: Tim Ekola [00:02:48]: Tim Ekola [00:04:06]: Tim Ekola [00:04:55]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:05:35]: Tim Ekola [00:06:26]: Tim Ekola [00:07:25]: Tim Ekola [00:08:16]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:08:47]: Tim Ekola [00:09:53]: Tim Ekola [00:10:42]: Tim Ekola [00:11:59]: Tim Ekola [00:13:01]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:13:04]: Tim Ekola [00:13:20]: Tim Ekola [00:14:08]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:14:26]: Tim Ekola [00:15:18]: Tim Ekola [00:16:08]: Tim Ekola [00:16:50]: Tim Ekola [00:17:19]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:17:22]: Tim Ekola [00:17:54]: Tim Ekola [00:19:15]: Tim Ekola [00:19:57]: Tim Ekola [00:20:18]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:20:25]: Tim Ekola [00:20:37]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:20:58]: Tim Ekola [00:20:58]: Tim Ekola [00:21:44]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:21:56]: Tim Ekola [00:22:05]: Tim Ekola [00:22:52]: Tim Ekola [00:23:26]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:23:37]: Tim Ekola [00:23:44]: Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:23:46]: On the latest episode of “Victors in Grad School,” Dr. Christopher Lewis welcomes Tim Ekola, a pharmacist and accomplished leader, to share his inspiring journey through military service, pharmacy, and graduate education. Their conversation unpacks the evolving path of a lifelong learner, the power of relationships, and actionable advice for anyone considering the next step […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":509,"featured_media":3208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,13,45],"tags":[2434,638,522,2608,58,44,2090,31,27,32,142,95,30,42,75,3227,150,974,3225,3230,54,1250,1237,750,226,53,832],"class_list":["post-3205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-administration","category-graduate-school-general","category-podcast","tag-academic-advice","tag-adult-learners","tag-career-development","tag-career-transitions","tag-choosing-a-graduate-program","tag-choosing-a-graduate-school","tag-education-journey","tag-graduate-degree","tag-graduate-school","tag-higher-education","tag-leadership","tag-lifelong-learning","tag-masters-degree","tag-masters-degree-2","tag-mba","tag-military-to-civilian","tag-networking","tag-personal-development","tag-pharmacy","tag-pharmd","tag-podcast","tag-professional-growth","tag-student-success","tag-time-management","tag-university-of-michigan-flint-2","tag-victors-in-grad-school","tag-work-life-balance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3211,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205\/revisions\/3211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Welcome to Victors in Grad School, where we have conversations with students, alumni, and experts about what it takes to find success in graduate school. Welcome back to Victors in Grad School. I’m your host, Dr. Christopher Lewis, Director of Graduate Programs at the University of Michigan Flint. Really excited to have you back again this week. And as always, every week, you and I are on a journey together. I call it a journey because it truly is a journey, because every person goes on a different path. To their education, to their future education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And no matter where you are right now, you are on a journey to your future. And that’s why you’re here, because for you, you have decided that at some point in the future that you have an interest in continuing your education. This show is here to be able to help you, to be able to give you some hints, some tips, some tricks, some things that can help you in that journey to help you find success in graduate school. So whether you are at the very beginning and just starting to think about this, whether you’ve already applied, maybe you’ve already heard and gotten that admission decision, maybe you’re in graduate school, doesn’t matter. There are things that you can do right now as you are preparing, as you are getting ready, as you’re going through graduate school to continue and have success in this journey that you’re on. Every week, I love being able to bring you different guests, different people with different experiences that can help you to be able to see what they had to do in that journey to be able to find success for themselves. Today, I’m really excited to be able to have Tim Ekola with us today. And Tim is a pharmacist, but he also has had many different things that he has done over his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I am really excited to be able to have him here to talk about his own journey in getting his education to share that with you. Tim, thanks so much for being here today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Absolutely. My pleasure. Thanks, Chris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, I’m really excited to be able to talk to you today. And I know that for you, you went to high school, but then after high school, you went into the military and you you served in the military for many years, and then decided that you were going to go and get that bachelor’s degree. And you ended up getting a bachelor’s and a doctorate degree at the same time, going and getting the pharmacy degree, and going to 2 different schools to ultimately get that. And then you went off and worked. And like many people, over the years, you used that pharmacy degree, you worked at many places, you also continued to serve in the military and worked in pharmacy there as well. And At some point in this professional journey that you went on, you found that you weren’t done and that you wanted to continue your education. Bring me back to that point in your professional life. What was going through your head and what made you decide that you weren’t done and that you wanted to continue your education?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s a wonderful question. So as my career progressed, both in my profession as a pharmacist, as a clinical pharmacist, and working in hospitals for the most of my career, it mirrored actually my Navy Reserve career as I was progressing in leadership positions. And there are certainly many opportunities within the military and other, other volunteer organizations to gain leadership skills and put them into action. And so as I was gaining leadership responsibilities in the military, I found myself with the similar opportunities within my profession where I became a director of pharmacy at a small critical access hospital in Dowagiac, Michigan. Small hospital, 20-bed hospital. Didn’t have my doctor of pharmacy at that point in time, but that was And so, as I moved on, I quickly understood that moving from a clinical role, understanding medications, evidence-based medicine, working with patients, was not the same as leading a department, as interacting with other healthcare professionals to run that department. And so, at that point, I did decide I was going to get a Master’s of Public Health. As what happened, I actually, at Western Michigan, accepted that, and I then got notification that our unit was being deployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
deployed to Germany. So for a year, we went over and supported the mission at Landstuhl Army Hospital as a Navy group. And but I never lost that understanding that I needed something else. And so after that mission was done, during that time, I actually stayed another 5 years as a civilian pharmacist doing medication safety for the Army. And I got my Doctor of Pharmacy degree during that time. Then we came back to Michigan in 2013, where I landed a position as Director of Pharmacy at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan. Again, not having a graduate degree in business, but certainly understanding that it was a larger complex, obviously, than a small critical access hospital. And it was during that time that I knew that I needed to not just understand how the pharmacy runs, but I need to understand the big picture, the strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had to understand organizational development, to culture, to relationships with people, the HR side, the finance and budget, where my boss\u2014 I reported to the VP of admin. And, you know, There were some tough questions and I had help along the way, but I just, at that point, I knew I needed an opportunity to excel and sharpen the tools in my\u2014 and add some tools to my toolbox that I’d not had before. And that was kind of a turning point. And so I looked around and found that University of Michigan Flint certainly offered a working professional those opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now you have 2 graduate degrees. So you went, you got a bachelor’s in pharmacy, and then as you said, you went, you served, ended up continuing and getting the PharmD and then going and getting the MBA. And when you made the choice to go and get the PharmD, as well as getting the choice\u2014 making the choice to go and get an MBA, you had to do your research. You had to look and figure out, you know, what is the right program? What were you looking for? You know, what did you want out of these programs? I guess as you think back and you think back to that, search and that exploration that you went through yourself. Talk to me about what you were looking for, what ultimately made you choose first Shenandoah University for your PharmD degree, but then, as you mentioned, then the University of Michigan Flint for your MBA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yeah, many similarities between both decisions, and you’re absolutely right, I did look at many different options. In the early 2000s, there were\u2014 mid to late 2000s, exactly\u2014 there were many opportunities for post-baccalaureate Doctor of Pharmacy programs. And Shenandoah, where I was in my life, I had children in high school, and boy does life get busy then. I was working, I had volunteer obligations that I do outside of that, so I needed a good balance. I needed both online support, but I also to be able to be with people. So I actually did that while I was in Germany and flew back to Winchester, Virginia several times to do some hands-on face-to-face face-to-face, but they were really accommodating. I had a great relationship with the dean of the pharmacy school there. His father actually was a physician at Lawnstool Army Hospital in the ’60s and ’70s, so we kind of hit it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similarly, as I was moving into looking at university for an MBA, I looked at various programs that would meet a working professional now with higher obligations as a director of pharmacy at a major trauma center in the center of Lansing. kids in college, a new family with younger kids coming along. So all those obligations were still there. And what, what University of Michigan Flint offered that I didn’t see from other programs was that ability to again have that work-life-school balance. But what I really liked was it’s different from the Doctor of Pharmacy. We were all pharmacists going back to get\u2014 and many of us practiced for many, many years. What I found at U of M Flint was it wasn’t all medical. Even though my MBA was in healthcare, I had automotive engineers from Ford and General Motors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so I got a new perspective ’cause you work in teams in many of these classes on projects. And I formed bonds and relationships that have carried on beyond that. Somebody might be strong in statistics, somebody might be strong in word writing, but you would learn to work together to get that project done, which actually was not new to me because having worked in the workplace for 20 years, I know that teamwork and strength, using the strength of the team is the best way to get things done. But I think I know that Michigan Definitely helped me see that clearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, whenever I talk to individuals that have gone to graduate school, and as I said, you’ve gone to 2 different ones, you have to make transitions and you go through a transition from undergrad to your graduate program. For you, you know, you went from military to undergrad to work to back to grad school, to work, back to grad school. So you did a number of transitions throughout your professional and personal life. And as you go into those different types of education, you have to understand more about the rules, the unspoken rules, the real rules. You have to understand what is\u2014 what are the expectations, and you have to adapt to what those different situations were. And you were successful in those transitions for yourself. Talk to me about in those transitions that you went through for your PharmD, for your MBA, What did you have to do as you were transitioning into those different educational environments? And what did you have to do throughout the educational experience to maintain your success throughout the entire program?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, it’s definitely about balance, and it is utilizing the resources and the support you have around you through your fellow classmates to even the professors, the instructors in those classes. What I liked about both programs is they were, though, especially University of Michigan, University of Michigan Flint, larger academic universities, universities, I didn’t feel like I was swallowed up in a big chasm of academia. I got to know the professors who were very supportive of me and all of the students. And so that was one thing that really helped move the process through. I\u2014 one of the things I look back on as my interesting career path and choice of when I got degrees was I read a letter back in the day. We had newspapers. with in print. And there was a strip from Ann Landers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She would\u2014 it was, uh, ask her a question. And somebody said, hey, I’m 34, I want to go back to school and become a physician, but that’s going to take 8 years. And she said, what are you going to be doing in 8 years anyway? So every time I made the decision down the path of my career to go back to school, to get a bachelor’s, to get a doctor of pharmacy, to get an MBA, I thought, well, what am I going to be doing in 2 or 3 years anyway? Let me make use of this time and my opportunities to do that. The interesting thing I think about how I took my journey was I started out as a hospital corpsman in the Navy and a pharmacy technician and, and knew when I joined the Navy that I was going to go to college. That’s why I joined the military, was put money aside with the GI Bill to be able to go back and get a degree. I didn’t know at the time what I wanted to do. And so watching the pharmacists work and having worked with them closely over the years and having great mentors and support along the way, that’s when I decided to go to Ferris State when I got off active duty and went into the reserves. And so So a lot of the information I learned, and this happened repeatedly with the next 2 degrees, was things that I knew and I could apply while I was actually working, right? So I was still working actively as a pharmacy technician and an intern, pharmacy intern later, and I could apply those pharmacy skills then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Didn’t say I knew everything. There was still much more to learn. And then as a practicing pharmacist for almost a decade, working in clinical environments like the OR and medical surgical floors and ICU, I went back and got my Doctor of Pharmacy. And working at the same time utilizing what I was learning during that couple-year period, but also adding new things to my toolbox. And as I’ve mentioned, I was already in management before I went back to get my MBA, but I could utilize budget strategies, long-term forecasting for, for strategies as I was doing this, and I would bring that back to my day-to-day work, which was so very very beneficial. I learned more about the lean process and black belt. I’m certified lean black belt, so understanding the flow. But when I took some of those classes at U of M Flint, that brought it even to greater light of how to watch transport and decrease certain areas that are going to slow you down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It really benefited me as I was going through that program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, you mentioned the fact You also looked at an MPH, you looked, and then you decided on an MBA. As you look back now, since you’ve gotten that MBA degree, and you, if you had to do it all over again, would you choose the same program or path? Why or why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I was sidetracked. I was going to get my MPH before the PharmD, but then I really knew that there was, when I had the opportunity to get the PharmD through Shenandoah, I was like, this is going to open doors for me. I am happy every time. I was happy in the job that I had and what I was doing. And I thought, I want to be able to choose my next career progression if I want to do it. And in the pharmacy profession, a doctor of pharmacy opens doors. And it certainly allowed me to come back and be competitive when we left Germany to have this position as a director of pharmacy. And then going from Sparrow to the VA Ann Arbor, which is a much larger complex, I went from having 80 full-time employees to 150 to 160 managing operational and clinical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
knew while I was at Sparrow, I didn’t know I was happy with my job at Sparrow, but I went, you know, I’m young. I was 50. I still have opportunities to do bigger things and work at a larger complex thing, but I need something that one differentiates me and one makes me again have sharpened some of the tools in my toolbox and have additional tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I’m confident because of that MBA and the reason I chose an MBA versus going back for something as narrow as public health, or there’s a master’s in pharmacy, it also opens doors in healthcare administration outside of the pharmacy Now, earlier you mentioned that one of the things that you had to do as you were transitioning in and through to find success was find that balance for yourself, because you said that, you know, you had kids in high school, that you were dealing with volunteering and work and all kinds of life issues. And a lot of times people have that same situation happening for themselves. Talk to me about balance. And what did you have to do to be able to find that balance in school, work, family, personal responsibilities? Well, I think while you were in graduate school and what you had to adjust as you were going through to be able to maintain that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So support at home is very important. And I have a loving wife who encouraged and supported me along those journeys and really understood the importance for me as an individual to be whole, for us to be whole. So I think that’s first and foremost is you have to have that converse, real conversation with your family about what this is going to do for the next couple of years to the things that you may have been able to spend time with them before. Now you have to figure out how to maybe do that a little differently. And in my case, the children were getting older, they were starting to drive. So some of those commitments of taking Sally here and Bobby there were gone because we didn’t have that. So that also timing was important for me to know that I couldn’t have done it when they were in elementary or junior high. But the high school years certainly lent itself to that opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You also have to kind of look The volunteer things you do. I do community theater. I’m active with the Scouting America program. I had to back down on some of my commitments there. Didn’t go away, but just have honest conversations with the folks that I’d built relationships outside of my professional family life to go, look, I’m doing this to make me a stronger individual, and it will not just benefit me, but in my profession. But as I come back into Scouting in America per se, I’m currently the council president for the Michigan Crossroads Council. And when I was asked for the role, I said, I thought you were looking for business leaders in the state. And they said, Tim, you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You’ve got an MBA. You’re a retired lieutenant commander from the Navy. You’ve led people. You know how to lead and do things. And I know the MBA was certainly a big part of that. And it’s so\u2014 it brings it back tenfold when you do a sacrifice for a couple of years. I look back, that time flew like that. The first couple of months, The first year you’re like\u2014 and I’ve told my children this, that they’ve gone through college\u2014 yet the first year feels like it’s going to be forever, but you’ll get to that halfway point and the next thing you know you are walking across the stage and getting that diploma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that’s exactly what happened both with the Doctor of Pharmacy and my MBA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now you mentioned also that one of the things that you really liked about your programs was the fact that you had peers that you were connecting with, and building those relationships is always important in a graduate program. Talk to me about those relationships and what you had to do to be able to those important relationships that you mentioned to\u2014 with your peers, with faculty, and what that has done for you, not only through the program but beyond the program, to allow for you to be successful not only through the program but in your career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, degrees are important to a degree, so to speak, but relationships are really what will help you succeed in life, whether it’s, again, personal or professional. And I found I learned early on, even before going to both of those graduate programs, that early on, that building those relationships, understanding who is there to support you and you can support along the way, is going to get you much farther in life than having several initials after the end of your name. We’ve told our children, it’s not always about what you know, it’s who you know. And I don’t mean that like in the sense that you have to buddy-buddy with people, but building relationships and showing, working with people And fellow classmates and professors and showing your initiative and your ability to get things done pays dividends when you get the call for, hey, we have a job opening and we’d like you to come talk to us, versus you trying to find a job. I think both my wife and I have mentioned that through our career, we probably had more job opportunities for advancement come to us because of those relationships we’ve built, where people reached out to us and said, you know what, you should really apply. We’d like you to do this. That. And whether it’s a professor who recognizes that, and they obviously have many, many contacts throughout their career, both students and other professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of my professors, and forgive me, I forget his name, but he was the CEO of a hospital in Southeast Michigan, Southwest Michigan. And so to get his perspective on the big picture of healthcare in America, which was kind of the, the subject of, of the class, but also key I mean, it’s a small world out there. It’s a small healthcare world. It’s a small military world, a small business world. And word of mouth can make or break an individual. And so relationships are so very important. So how do you develop those? At U of M Flint, we had breakfast in the morning before you go to class and there’s a lunchtime opportunity. So you sit in those people that you’re doing projects with, you get to know them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You talk about their personal life. They, you know, their children’s name, you know what the interests are outside of getting this degree. And I will tell you, there’s an individual lives in Fowlerville. He is a former Marine. I was a former corpsman with the Marines. We hit it off tremendously. He works for Consumers Power. We go to U of M and Michigan State games and tailgate together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve been to his birthday party. He opened a business and I came to help support that beyond my graduation from that program in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you look back to your graduate school experiences, they’re the 2 that you’ve had. What would you say were the 2 most valuable things you learned outside of the classroom during graduate school?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think I’ve kind of touched on that with the relationships that you build with people. I think that is key, and it was just cemented more into my thinking and view of working and being a member of the community, how important that is to be part of a community, to build those relationships. And I think the big part is the education is very important, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
those are skills that help us again understand better, more efficient ways to get things done that we need to get done in our profession. But beyond that, it’s how we utilize those other soft skills that are developed during that process of both of those degree programs. Again, building relationships, being part of a community, coming back and wherever your community is, understanding that it is to be a well-rounded person. We are doing more than just, in my profession, licking and sticking and pouring and counting out tablets. We are advocates for patient healthcare throughout the state. But that can be done through a myriad of other organizations. Scouting does a lot of that. Rotary does a lot of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have a lot of opportunities to expand that benefit that we got from going maybe to the graduate schools and giving back to our, our neighbors and, and others across the world where we can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And finally, as you think back to your graduate school experiences, what are some tips that you might offer others considering graduate education that would help them find success sooner?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yeah, I will reiterate, the first thing you need to do is have an honest conversation with your family, depending on where you are in your life, what that commitment means, and have their support. I did actually want to go back and get my doctor of pharmacy degree shortly after I got my bachelor’s, and my children were much younger, and my wife said, listen, you can spend the next 4 years doing that, but you’re going to miss a big portion of their life. So I put it on hold, rightfully so. So you have to find the right time for you. The other is having a good talk with your, your immediate workplace boss, as well as the You work with and let them know that you’re interested in that. And do, do they have your support? There’s the monetary side. How are you going to pay for this? Some organizations, consumers, and others will give you a stipend. I had GI Bill that helped me with my doctor of pharmacy degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the financial part is important to make sure you have that in place before you set out on this journey. And just time management is key. If you’re not good at that now, you will be by the time you’re done because you’re going to have to be. But persevere. How about that? I think the Finns\u2014 I’m Finnish, the last name’s Ekala\u2014 have something called sisu, which is grit and perseverance. And there will be time when it’s overwhelming, everything coming at you. You have a big paper due, you have work obligations. Persevere, use your time management skills appropriately, but then communicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Communicate with your professors, communicate with your work colleagues, communicate with your family and go, hey, I need need this to get this done. And people are good at heart and they understand, but you, you’ll get it done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, Tim, I just want to say thank you. Thank you so much for being here today, for sharing your own journey, and I truly wish you all the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Appreciate it. Thank you, Dr. Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today I’m really excited to be able to have Tim Ekola with us today, and Tim is a pharmacist. The University of Michigan Flint has a full array of master’s and doctorate programs if you are interested in continuing your education. Whether you’re looking for in-person or online learning options, the University of Michigan-Flint has programs that will meet your needs. For more information on any of our graduate programs, visit umflint.edu\/graduateprograms to find out more. Thanks again for spending time with me as you prepare to be a Victor in grad school. I look forward to speaking with you again soon as we embark together on your graduate school journey. If you have any questions or want to reach out, email me at flintgradoffice@umflint.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"