February 28, 2012
Elsen and Susan Jacob — twin sisters who earned their Pharm.D. degrees in May 2011 — share a lifelong commitment to helping those in need.
Graduates of the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, they are well on their way to becoming successful healthcare providers. At 24, each is a post-graduate resident at a top-ranked teaching hospital. Elsen is at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School; Susan, at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Bonded in ways that only twins can be, they roomed and studied together at St. John’s, even sharing the same mentors. “By the time we started,” said Susan, “we realized that we worked well as a team.” Elsen added, “We felt that by doing everything together, we’d each get more out of our college experience.”
Both earned admission to the Rho Chi Society and Phi Lambda Sigma, the highest pharmaceutical academic and leadership honor societies. They were also selected for membership by the University’s President’s Society — the first time more than one student from Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions has been inducted in the same year.
Insatiable learners with a desire to make a difference, Elsen and Susan took advantage of service as well as academic opportunities. “I was very impressed,” said John Conry, Pharm.D., Associate Clinical Professor and Project Renewal Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator,” by their contributions to the Project Renewal team.” The project is an ambulatory healthcare service for the homeless. “Their compassionate and professional care was very inspiring.”
In addition, the sisters played a major role in helping the Vincentian Center for Church and Society raise money for global HIV/AIDS relief on World AIDS Day. They also joined Campus Ministry plunges, Student Government, the Vincentian Initiative to Advance Leadership (V.I.T.A.L), the UN Path to Peace Summit and the agency’s annual Global Leadership Conference.
“While the service experiences were eye-opening,” said Susan, “our clinical fieldwork was life-changing.” The five-month rotation program in partnership with New York Presbyterian Hospital helped the sisters realize they wanted to earn medical degrees in addition to their pharmaceutical credentials.
They were so intrigued by their introduction to diagnostics that they elected to go beyond the program’s requirements and volunteer at New York Presbyterian’s emergency room.
Elsen’s and Susan’s close relationship was shaped not only by being twins, but by their formative experiences growing up in India with missionary grandparents, a clergyman father and a mother who teaches.
“My most vivid memory,” said Susan, “is meeting people from all walks of life when we accompanied our father on his ministerial visits. We were especially impacted by how he interacted with everyone he helped — something we strive to emulate in our own practices.”
These values came into play when they selected a college. “St. John’s mission was the right match for us,” said Susan. “One visit and we were sold.”
Next on their agenda is getting into a top-tier medical school. “Our goal is to make quality healthcare accessible to all,” said Elsen, “especially in third-world countries where no system currently exists.”