This month, we are joined at Plain City Druggist by Dakota Arledge, a fourth-year pharmacy student from The Ohio State University’s College of Pharmacy.

Dakota will graduate in May 2024 with his PharmD degree and will then take the test to become a registered pharmacist. Dakota will be with Tayler and the gang here in Plain City throughout June, so please stop by and meet him while he is here.

Here is what Dakota tells us about himself:

I am Dakota Arledge, a P4 Ohio State University PharmD student who is currently living in Columbus.

I grew up around Athens, which is a small college town in the south east of Ohio. Athens is home to Ohio University, which is where I completed my undergraduate degree. I graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, which was my favorite subject throughout school.

In my undergraduate years, I was originally unsure of what career path I wanted to pursue. I started out as a pre-medicine chemistry major, but eventually decided I wanted to do something that had more of an emphasis on chemistry than biology. After hearing a talk from a representative of Ohio State’s pharmacy school admissions, I was eventually convinced to pursue pharmacy.

I think one of the biggest selling points in choosing pharmacy was the fact that pharmacists can exercise their expertise nearly anywhere. Pharmacists can practice in a large range of locations and have many more specialties than people may first realize, allowing them to have a bit more freedom to choose where they live and work.

For the past year, I have worked as a pharmacy intern at a Kroger pharmacy in Whitehall, Ohio.

After graduation this next year, I plan on moving to Florida to live closer to my sister who currently works at Kroger as a pharmaceutical sales representative. Initially, I’ll likely continue to work for Kroger in a community setting and slowly begin to pay off my student debt. Eventually, I hope to get to a point where I can become more financially independent and experienced, allowing me to practice outside of a large pharmacy chain.

In my experience, I’ve always enjoyed the environment of independent pharmacies. They seem like great places to both shop and work. Whenever I visit an independent pharmacy, I always feel like they have a more laidback and personal touch to them, in contrast with the chaotic environment that seems to come with many larger chain pharmacies.

In the future I wouldn’t mind working for a smaller pharmacy; my sister has even discussed with me the idea of eventually opening our own small pharmacy sometime in the distant future. It’s definitely something I keep mind the back of my mind as I take steps toward the development of my career.

In my spare time, I enjoy exercising, reading history, and golfing with friends.