by Dawn Brazell
Public Relations

There's a reason graduate 'Rita T.' has a nickname among her S.C. College of Pharmacy (SCCP) Class of 2012.
For some reason her Russian name, Margarita Taburyanskaya, gets people tongue tied. The nickname just makes it easier, she said smiling. She has learned to make many such adjustments since leaving her home in the Ural Mountains.

Taburyanskaya, PharmD, was studying nuclear physics in Russia, but thought it was boring. She came to America in 2001 as an exchange student, working in Myrtle Beach at a small restaurant. She had friends there who had connections. "You are 19 and it was a lot of fun," she said, smiling. She was to return two more times on trips and during one of those visits learned about SCCP's program. She decided that was the challenge she wanted and enrolled in September 2008.

Dr. Rita T. has her eyes on the final goal: opportunities for research.

She didn't let cultural or language differences hold her back. She has found it enriching to have the cultural exchange and feels a tolerance for other cultures is very important in a world that increasingly has no borders, she said.

What did make life challenging, though, was the arrival of her daughter Emma two years ago. Her husband manages a restaurant in Myrtle Beach, so she has carried most of the childcare duties.

"It's hard. It's a lack of sleep. You have to do what you have to do for school and you have to give up something. I give up sleep."

Though motherhood complicates being a student, Taburyanskaya said she has found time to participate in class organizations. She was vice president of three groups, the Student National Pharmaceutical Association, the Academy of Student Pharmacists and the Association of Community Pharmacists during her third year. She's very excited that she will be doing a residency at MUSC. She's interested in pursuing work in the fields of infectious diseases or critical care.

"I would like to see more pharmacists who take more responsibility with patient care. There's more collaboration with physicians and nurses, and I think that's great."

SCCP has been a wonderful learning environment. She likes that lectures were available electronically. "It's doable, but you have to stay organized. You have to stay on time and multitask all the time. I never sit down and just watch TV."

What she does is rush from class to get her daughter and then go to the playground, dinner, bath, read a book shift and then study from 9 p.m. to as long as she can stay awake. "Then I wake up at 5:30 and do it all over again."
Taburyanskaya just keeps her eye on the final goal.

She likes how fast-paced the field of pharmacy is with the new drugs and technologies. "There will be a lot of opportunities for research. It's the ultimate goal to do work that helps to cure someone."