This summer, Mercer University College of Pharmacy student Susannah Nwuha traded her Atlanta home for the desert Southwest, spending her summer as a U.S. Public Health Service intern on the Navajo Nation in Kayenta, Arizona. Along the way, she provided vital services to the Navajo community and discovered a career path she said she never imagined for herself.
Nwuha, PHA ’27, worked at a small rural hospital through the U.S. Public Health Service Junior Commissioned Officer Student Training and Extern Program.
During her time, Nwuha served as a liaison between the schools in the Kayenta community and the hospital’s pharmacy, connecting administrators with her preceptor, Lt. Cmdr. Bryan Wilson. She co-hosted community health fairs promoting pharmacy services and helped with youth outreach at Monument Valley High School and Baker Middle School in response to a local rise in youth vaping and nicotine use, introducing high schoolers to public health careers.
For Nwuha, leaving Georgia for rural Arizona wasn’t an easy decision.
“I’m pretty much a homebody and introverted. I usually don’t like getting out of my comfort zone,” she said. “Even when I got the offer, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, should I still take it? Do I really want to do this?’”
She ultimately said yes, flew into Phoenix and drove the rest of the way to the reservation. It was her first trip to the western United States.
“I didn’t know how geographically different it was until I got there,” Nwuha said. “It was an actual desert. It was beautiful, but I missed seeing a lot of trees.”
Nwuha said the experience reshaped how she thinks about her future in pharmacy. She’s now considering paths she hadn’t previously entertained, including participating in the Senior Commissioned Officer Student Training and Extern Program, an Indian Health Service residency or a commissioned officer role with the U.S. Public Health Service after graduation.
Nwuha’s advice for other students: “Be open-minded. You still might be scared about what to expect or afraid about getting out of your comfort zone, but you never know what you might see.”
