A team of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy (SOP) students won the Most Humorous PharmFlix video award at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Annual Meeting held March 22-25 in Seattle. The 10th Annual APhA-Academy of Student Pharmacists (ASP) PharmFlix contest was themed “Celebrate 50 years of APhA-ASP: Embracing our Profession’s Call.”
Belleville native Sarah Surmeier wrote and produced the video with Jazmine Rosales, of Huntley, as producer. View the video, which was also nominated among the top 10 for Best Overall PharmFlix.
Recognizing APhA’s 50th anniversary, Surmeier decided to utilize “The Golden Girls” TV show in the video. “I organized a committee and bounced around ideas on how to incorporate this idea with pharmacy into a 90-second video,” Surmeier said. “Our concept was a pharmacist performing a house visit to the Golden Girls. I spent a few days watching old episodes and wrote the script.”
Meanwhile, Rosales recruited College of Arts and Sciences junior Spencer Peck, of O’Fallon, to direct the shoot.
The cast of five SOP students consisted of Dalton Dieckow, of Bartonville, as the pharmacist; Catherine Gilmore, of Springfield, as Rose; Paris Smith, of Chicago, as Dorothy; Allison Hotop, of Perryville, Mo., as Sophia; and Kayla Link, of Springfield, as Blanche.
SIUE won the award twice previously for “Batman the Pharmacist” and “Batman the Pharmacist 2,” in 2016 and ’17, respectively, which motivated Surmeier and friends. “I was a first-year when “Batman the Pharmacist 2” won, which I think was part of the reason we were so determined to keep the trend going,” she said.
“I was truly excited about the idea, and we had a good chance of making something very funny for other pharmacy students to enjoy,” Surmeier said. “Most of the time this video was just a fun project to work on with my peers to build relationships and memories, while also taking a mental break from our studies. To have the honor of winning the national award was within our hopes, but honestly the best surprise of the conference.”
Photo (L-R): SIUE School of Pharmacy students Sarah Surmeier and Jazmine Rosales.