Pharmacy Perspectives - Graduation 2011 - 3

Dancing her way through school
“Hearing the roar of the crowd was exhilarating,” says Nicole Moore of her first time stepping onto the field at Invesco Field at Mile High. “It’s indescribable. The excitement. The crowd. The energy. It’s palpable,” says Moore. For four years, Moore successfully merged pharmacy school with being a Denver Broncos cheerleader. Ten hours a week of practice; Sunday, Monday and Saturday games; along with the extreme load of pharmacy school has, as Moore says, “been a bit of a juggling act.” With Sunday games and tests on Mondays, Moore learned to study on the go, on a treadmill and during breaks in practice. She even had to learn that there’s a time not to study. “I found that you can overwhelm yourself with pharmacy school and let it run your life or let yourself have an outlet. Practice and the games were my ‘time out’ from studying.” Cheerleading helped Moore refocus and re-energize. Then after the games she’d “reset” and be ready to study again. Contrary to popular belief, professional cheerleading is very different than high school or college cheerleading. It’s not about acrobatics, pyramids and flips. NFL cheerleaders are not gymnasts. They are dancers. Moore who has been dancing since the age of three, never cheered in high school. She was a volleyball player. Then near the end of her undergraduate program in exercise science at UNC she tried out for the Denver Nuggets cheerleading team and made it. With 44 games and three-times-a-week practices she definitely learned how to multitask, performing during her final year at UNC and while gathering enough prerequisite courses to enter pharmacy school. Once in pharmacy school, Moore decided to retire from the Nuggets and try out for the Broncos as the schedule was a little less taxing. “Quite frankly I didn’t know how challenging the schedule would be. It was difficult – especially with those Monday exams, but it’s definitely not as hard as raising a family and going to school – that’s for sure! Cheering for the Broncos is part-time. Parenthood is more than full-time.”

attending the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy, he enrolled at Northeastern Junior College and took the required pre-pharmacy coursework to get into CU’s pharmacy program. His teachers, professors and family knew it was ambitious. With 130 openings and more than 1,800 applicants, the odds were stacked against him. But Jason’s seen worse odds. His motto is, “Difficult takes a while. Impossible a little longer.” And he should know. “In retrospect applying to only one program was probably not a brilliant move, but I was convinced I was going to be in the 2011 class at CU.” And he was. That kind of drive, determination and quiet confidence has marked Jason’s road to recovery. “Jason’s recovery is absolutely amazing. The odds that a person recovers from this type of trauma and then goes on to graduate with a doctor of pharmacy degree are a million to one. It is a testament to the resiliency of a child’s brain, the quick care he received from paramedics, and the type of person he is,” concludes Dr. Matthews.

“...I didn’t know how challenging the schedule would be. It was difficult – especially with those Monday exams, but it’s definitely not as hard as raising a family and going to school...”

Moore says she has a tremendous amount of respect for her classmates who attended pharmacy school while raising children. “I had the luxury of being able to escape from studying through dance and cheer. My classmates had to squeeze in studying around raising a family. That’s tough.”

Spring 2011

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Pharmacy Perspectives - Graduation 2011

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