21 things to be thankful for in 2021

There is a lot to be thankful for in the year 2021. With the month of Thanksgiving looming, we asked the MUSC College of Pharmacy mascot, Phil the Pill, to channel the college and represent the reasons for which it is grateful.

So, herewith, are 21 reasons to be thankful in 2021:

 21

The faculty, staff, and students have remained largely COVID-free.

 20

We had rebel women in our midst.

 19

We turned 140 years old!

 18

Advised by faculty member David Shirley, the team of Matthew Brock, Erin Dougherty, Brandea Hardie, Amanda Newton, and TJ Parkman reached the finals of a national business plan competition.

 17

There was no presidential election.

 16

We regularly walked by a construction site and watched it transition from demolition to foundation to seeing the first vestiges of a new pharmacy building start to emerge.

 15

Barbara Harter Rippy told us she loved us to the moon and back.

 14

We got the opportunity to work daily with people like Diane Reeves, Jean Nappi, Marianne Rogers, Nancy Vescovi, and others in the broader MUSC family who retired this year.

 13

Our lives were enriched by Kennerly Patrick and Peter Edwards.

 12

We’re thankful we still live at the beach.

 11

Chris Wisniewski hit for the triple crown: tenure, full professor, national teaching honor.

 10

Nearly 40 percent of the incoming class considered themselves minority and our outreach program for recruiting underrepresented minorities hit record attendance.

 9

We created a fun celebratory video of our groundbreaking ceremony, complete with trailer and an in-person, welcome-back-to-campus viewing party.

 8

Our refrigerators were adorned with nifty Proud Preceptor magnets.

 7

Victoria Brooks and Chad Harle broke the seal on our new Pharm.D./MSHI dual degree program.

 6

The vaccine. We’re thankful for the science, for the fast-track, for the volunteers, for the experience, for the lives that were saved.

 5

Cathy Worrall won the national Phi Lambda Sigma Leadership Award, after years of helping others achieve national PLS recognitions.

 4

Shirley’s Angels. We’re grateful for the name alone. And the SCPhA 2021 Self-Care Bowl championship.

 3

We got to hear Distinguished Alumnus Award winners James Hodges ’71 and Lori Dickerson ’93 speak at the 2021 hooding and white coat ceremonies.

 2

We’re thankful for pharmacists who paint, who write poetry and publish it, who create beautiful images, who are multilingual, who make cookies.

 1

We’re thankful for having so many things to be thankful for!