Future Pharmacist: Now-senior Kelsey Stroud is graduating early to pursue a career in pharmacy

Then-junior Kelsey Stroud opened a new Google tab and typed into the search bar:

“What can you do with chemistry?”

Her chemistry Google search came back with a plethora of chemistry-based careers. Chemical engineer, chemist, lab technician, pharmacist — that’s it. Stroud stopped scrolling and immediately knew what her new career focus would be.

Since taking standard-level chemistry her sophomore year and AP Chemistry with chemistry teacher Steven Appier, Stroud found that she enjoyed perfecting her titrations and lighting Bunsen burners more than pursuing her previous passion of speech therapy and education.

Stroud has now joined the class of 2024 in order to graduate early and pursue an accelerated journey of pharmacy.

“I didn’t ever really see [graduating early] as a possibility until one of my friends was like, ‘Just graduate early,’ as a joke,” Stroud said. “I was thinking about it for a second, and I was like, ‘Why don’t I graduate early? What’s really stopping me?’”

Stroud is completing her credits through a program called Credit Transfer Back. According to Stroud, joining the program is like a “pinky promise” between herself and the East administration that although she will not have all of her graduation requirements by the end of the spring, she will complete her remaining classes at the college level.

For example, Stroud still needs to complete her fourth required English credit, but instead of learning inside the East hallways, she will take either English 122 or 123 at Johnson County Community College.

“Once I finish [my required credits], I’ll just send my transcript back to East, and [they’ll] send me my diploma,” Stroud said. “You can take the rest of your classes online while you’re a junior, but that will give you 10 classes on your schedule, which is crazy. So this was a compromise.”

Although Stroud isn’t piling 10 classes onto her schedule like other early graduates, graduating early is still a difficult feat, according to Stroud. Her motivation sprouts from her longing for a clean slate in college. Stroud describes her motivation like a pie chart: 75% is to save money and time for her future and the remaining 25% of it is a clean social slate.

“I need to start fresh and I have been looking forward to that fresh start so much,” Stroud said. “Even when I’m not sure about the academic part, that 25% pushes me.”

In between finishing her remaining English and government classes at JCCC, Stroud plans on enrolling in prerequisites for pharmacy school, which she hopes to attend at University of Missouri-Kansas City after her time at JCCC.

“There’ll be so many new opportunities when I turn 18,” Stroud said. “I can become a pharmacy technician. I can start working in the pharmacy and start getting new experiences and the freedom that I really want.”