Jessa Mae Sabate ’23 shares thoughts on food, the Philippines, and pharmacy

Student Jessa Mae Sabate was a guest in the hall for an episode of Hall Talks honoring Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Hailing from the Philippines, the fourth-year MUSC pharmacy student chatted with dean Philip Hall earlier this month.

Sabate moved to the United States a few years ago and decided on a pharmacy career while taking classes at Trident Technical College, where in 2017 she earned an associate’s degree as a pharmacy technician/assistant. The variety of options that a pharmacy degree offers led her to enroll in the MUSC College of Pharmacy in 2019… just in time for COVID to complicate her education.

She talked with Dean Hall about the history of Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, her own experiences at MUSC about that heritage, and her own background as a Filipino.

“It is really a privilege to be able to represent and share my culture, which is the Filipino culture, in a community like MUSC, where they celebrate and embrace culture like ours,” Sabate said. As one example, she cited how MUSC honored Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month by having the food trucks in the Greenway serve Asian cuisine, including lumpia, the famous Filipino egg roll.  “After all, what is the best way to share Filipino culture than through foods!”

Hall Talks with Jess Mae Sabate