Campus Life
Inside Northeastern
Chigozie Opara
Pharmacy major
On the NU co-op experience
Chigozie Opara believes that one of the most important things a student interested in health care can do is seek out a co-op program like the one Northeastern offers. Working in the field while you’re still a student gives you valuable information about what you enjoy. “Experience is key,” Opara says. “It’s the chance to ask yourself, ‘Do I really like this?’”
Opara didn’t have too much trouble settling on pharmacy as a major, but she’s living proof that co-op can be eye opening. She spent one co-op at an outpatient clinic, and another at a chain pharmacy, but felt something was missing with both. And then, during her third year at Northeastern, she heard an inspiring speech by U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona. Raised poor in Harlem and the Bronx, he dropped out of high school to join the army, and served as a medic in Vietnam. He eventually went to college and ended up becoming a trauma surgeon.
“What drew me in was that he was a man who had struggled to get where he is,” Opara says. “He also seems like he really wants to help people.”
A few weeks later, when she spotted a poster with Carmona’s picture on it, describing internships with the U.S. Public Health Service’s Commissioned Corps, Opara paid attention. She applied and was accepted by the prestigious program, which sent her to work for five months in the pharmacy of an Indian Health Service hospital in Minnesota. “I would never have fathomed it,” Opara says. “But I’m very happy that I chose to go out there.”
