Noah Meyers grew up in Surprise, Arizona, and knew what he wanted to do from a young age- kind of. A personality test he took in sixth grade, which offered career suggestions based on your results, told him that being a pharmacist would be a good fit for him. As it was the highest-paying job on the list, he decided that was what he wanted to do, even though he had no idea what a pharmacist was at that age.
Not thinking much of it then, Meyers had no idea that this personality test would be a look into the future. But it wasn’t until high school, where Meyers heard about West-MEC, that this seemingly random personality test really began to lay the groundwork for the rest of his life.
“We had a West-MEC representative come to our high school and talk about the programs they had. I had thought about being a pharmacist for a while but still didn’t know everything about the career. Then I saw they actually had a pharmacy program,” said Meyers. “So for me, it was a way to see if I actually liked pharmacy before I went and paid a ton of money for school.”
Meyers instantly fell in love with pharmacy and West-MEC as a whole. He enjoyed the hands-on training and community built in his class. Each student was there for a common goal, translating into a unique learning environment unlike any Meyers had ever experienced.
Besides the technical skills he learned at West-MEC, Meyers attributes the professional skills and networking he achieved during his time with West-MEC to why he felt he had a leg up on his peers after completing the program.
“Through West-MEC and the opportunities it gave me, I was able to meet a lot of people and see how an actual pharmacy was run. It gave me a lot of references when I was applying for Midwestern,” said Meyers. “I had actual pharmacists willing to write me letters of recommendation. Between the hands-on experience in the classroom and the professional skills and connections I made, I definitely had a step on other candidates.”
Meyers recently accomplished another incredible milestone in his career journey, as he just graduated from Midwestern University in Glendale, earning his Doctoral Degree in Pharmacy. Accomplishing this just five years removed from high school and West-MEC is nothing short of amazing.
After two years of undergraduate studies at local community colleges and three years at Midwestern in their accelerated program, Meyers is ready to enter the pharmacy field. He has some leads on positions near his hometown of Surprise, where he wants to stay for the foreseeable future.
But Meyers doesn’t think he would be where he is today without West-MEC.
“I felt like West-MEC gave me a great understanding of what it was like to be a pharmacist and what it would take to become one, both technically and professionally speaking,” said Meyers. “The main thing it did for me was give me the confidence that I could do it and the confidence when heading into an interview or making new relationships.”
