Pharmacy Student featured on ETSU Homepage

No matter where he goes, 29-year-old Tandy Branham always seems to find himself in leadership positions. Of course, hes been preparing for those roles since he was just a child.

When I was born, my parents were very poor. Neither of them had graduated from high school and neither had a job, says the Pound, Virginia, native. We lived off of Social Security and food stamps pretty much my whole childhood.

By the time he was in second grade, Branhams parents had split up, leaving him as the man of the house at the tender age of 7.

With a single mother, I had to pick up a lot of responsibilities, Branham recalls.

His mother returned to school, garnering her GED, and by the time Branham entered high school, his mom had earned her nursing degree. She was a good role model for me seeing her come from nothing and make something of herself, Branham says of his mom, who today is a nurse practitioner and owns both a home health agency and a family health clinic in their hometown.

As for his own career path, Branham says his mother wanted him to think outside of the norm for the southwest Virginia region. She was really against me doing coal mining, he says. She wanted me to do something with my education. She encouraged her son to consider a health profession, telling him, The world will always need medical professionals.

Toward the end of Branhams senior year in high school, he discovered the line of work that would eventually lead him to East Tennessee State University.

I was in the Rite-Aid in my town picking up a prescription for my grandmother, he recalls. The pharmacy technician was genuinely happy and kind. She was talking with patients and obviously cared about them.

After retrieving his grandmothers prescription, Branham stuck around to ask the pharmacy tech about her job. And so began his journey into the pharmacy world.

After his high school graduation, Branham went on to Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he obtained his pharmacy technician certificate. From there, he applied to the very Rite-Aid pharmacy where he first decided to go into the field and he got the job.

Branham served as the lead technician there for two years and began working on completing his pre-requisites to attend pharmacy school. But in 2006, the perfect storm of personal and financial problems took Branham in a very different direction.

I didnt have a way to support myself in pharmacy school and I was well aware of that, he says. I knew I had to be able to focus just on school and not have to worry about working to pay my way at the same time.

Around that time, Branham and his then-fianc also parted ways.

There were a lot of things going on emotionally and financially, and I made a spontaneous decision that probably ended up being the best decision of my life, Branham says. I joined the Marine Corps.

During his time in the military, Branham was promoted multiple times and repeatedly asked to take on more leadership responsibilities. He deployed twice to Iraq in 2008 and to Afghanistan in 2010.

It was while he was in the Marines that Branham met his wife, Maria. The couple wed in 2010 and currently have an 8-month-old daughter, Ariel. He completed his service with the Marines in 2011.

I was going to re-enlist, and if I hadnt gotten married, I probably would have, Branham says. But its not easy to be in the Marines and have a family, so we decided I should go back to school.

While finishing his final two pre-requisites, Branham began applying to pharmacy schools, including the Gatton College of Pharmacy at ETSU, where he initially applied because it is a yellow-ribbon school, meaning ETSU is designated as being military friendly.

ETSU is in the top 10 percent of yellow-ribbon schools in the nation, Branham notes. It was important to me to know I would have that kind of support when I returned to school.

At the end of 2012, Branham got his chance to interview for a spot in the GCOPs Class of 2017.

When I came for the interview, I walked in and Dean (Larry) Calhoun was there to welcome me at the front door. That doesnt happen most places, the dean being there to greet you when you arrive, Branham says. After interview day, I knew this is where I wanted to go.

A week after interviewing, Branham received a call from Calhoun letting him know he had been accepted.

True to form, Branham continued being a leader by running for president of his class, a position he not only obtained, but has been re-elected to twice now. Im kind of the middle person between the students and our faculty and staff, says Branham, now a third-year pharmacy student. It is a lot of tasks that I was already familiar with and I really enjoy it.

Branham is also looking to whats familiar when it comes to his post-graduation plans. He is considering either a return to the military this time as a pharmacist in the Navy or a pharmacy job within the Veterans Affairs system where he can help fellow veterans get quality health care.

Regardless of which route he chooses, Branham says his time at ETSU has helped him figure out where he is headed. It is just so welcoming here. Everybody is very much wanting you to succeed, he says. The pharmacy school is a second family for me.