Passing the lab coat

One sister graduates pharmacy school, the other begins her own pharmacy journey

As Katrina Thai (Rx2026) prepares to hang up her student lab coat and graduate from the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy, her younger sister Tiana Thai (CAP 2026) is just beginning her own journey at Waterloo.

Long before they considered pharmacy as a career, the sisters spent their afternoons in the back of their father's independent pharmacy in Sudbury, Lasalle Clinic Pharmacy, colouring, lending a hand and occasionally sneaking a chocolate bar. Those early experiences exposed them to community pharmacy and gave them a deeper understanding of the profession.

As they grew older, their childhood memories evolved into an even deeper appreciation for the profession as they both began working at their father’s pharmacy. Seven years apart, they each had different experiences that sparked their future careers.

"Being exposed to healthcare and community service at such a young age helped us both realize that pharmacy was a place where we could make a difference in other people’s lives,” Katrina says.

When Katrina began applying to university, Waterloo stood out to her because of the Conditional Admission to Pharmacy (CAP) program in the Faculty of Science. The opportunity to complete two years in CAP before transitioning to the PharmD program, earning both a Bachelor of Science degree and a PharmD, made Waterloo an attractive option. She also considered studying pharmacy in England but receiving her offer to the CAP program solidified Waterloo as her first choice.

For Tiana, Waterloo was also among her top choices. "Every time Katrina visited from pharmacy school, she came home a different person, growing a little more each time. Seeing Katrina go through CAP and the PharmD program opened the possibility for me. Our dad's experience was from a different generation, but Katrina showed me what a pharmacy journey looks like now,” she adds.

Tiana is now following in her sister’s footsteps, while carving her own path, as she enters the CAP program this fall.

"I remember Katrina working at the pharmacy when I was younger and saying, 'This could be you one day’,” Tiana says. “And now I can say it is me.”

The CAP program and PharmD program both have small class sizes, a huge draw for both the sisters. Before even starting the CAP program, Katrina and Tiana had connected with almost everyone in their cohort. Having that same group of people alongside them is both comforting and exciting.

"I really gained so much from Waterloo, even beyond my degrees. I gained a profession for myself, but I also gained new lifelong friends and a new level of confidence,” says Katrina.

Tiana is looking forward to new experiences in a new city where she can learn and discover what Waterloo has to offer and begin preparing for the next two years to apply to pharmacy school. Watching her sister go through the program helped Tiana solidify what she wants to explore next; hearing about minor ailment prescribing and administering injections showed Tiana how much the profession had evolved since their father first entered into practice.

“I’m excited to explore even beyond community pharmacy and see what else pharmacy has to offer. I can’t wait to see where my co-op work terms take me, as my sister got to experience,” says Tiana.

Katrina's co-op experiences helped shape her into a confident future pharmacist. Her first co-op at Health Sciences North Hospital in Sudbury introduced her to hospital practice and healthcare systems, while her next co-op work terms at Extend Pharmacy in Ottawa gave her the opportunity to work exclusively with patients receiving cancer treatments. Working alongside Waterloo Pharmacy alum May Nguyen (Rx2022) was particularly impactful.

“Having a role model of another young Vietnamese woman and Waterloo grad was so special to me. She taught me the ropes of oncology pharmacy, a topic that I hadn’t yet learned at school and really helped me build rapport with patients,” Katrina says. “When she asked me to return for my third co-op work term, it was a no brainer, I went back.”

By the end of her third co-op term and patient care rotations, Katrina was reviewing medication histories, counselling patients, collaborating with colleagues and making clinical recommendations. The hands-on experiences strengthened her technical skills and prepared her for practice as a future pharmacist.

“When I started pharmacy school I knew I wanted to be a pharmacist, but I was still figuring out where I fit within the profession. It’s continuous learning through co-op and clinical rotations that makes you trust yourself and overcome that imposter syndrome,” says Katrina.

As Katrina finishes her journey at Waterloo and Tiana starts hers, Katrina is excited to watch Tiana create her own path. Both sisters share the same long-term goal: to bring the knowledge, skills and experiences they’ve gained back to their Northern Ontario community.

"I’m excited to be back home, returning to Lasalle Clinic Pharmacy while starting a new chapter as an intern at the Shirley and Jim Fielding Northeast Cancer Centre. Sudbury is where our dad first inspired us, and it's fun to think patients who have known him for years will now see me as a pharmacist, and one day Tiana too,” Katrina says.

“Having both of my daughters pursue the same career as their father is very exciting,” adds Peter Thai (University of Toronto, 1994), “I am looking forward to passing the torch to them and seeing where they can take our practice in the future. I know our patients will continue to get the same care and service that we always strive for.”