Aidan Hermsen, 17, Rapid City Central High School Senior and Junior Certified Pharmacy Technician at Rapid City Hospital is the youngest person in South Dakota to be a certified Junior Pharmacy Technician.
And it all started with a jacket.
When he was in the fourth grade, Aidan needed a costume for Career Day. On the advice of his mom, Sarah Hermsen, Director of Operational Performance Management, Aidan ended up borrowing a pharmacist jacket from Dustin Horning, the father of a friend from school and an Applications Analyst-Pharmacist at Turbine Drive.
“I’ve always liked math and science and my mom has been saying since I was little, ‘You should consider pharmacy as an option,’” says Aidan.
“Knowing his personality, he likes rules. He likes things clean and organized and so it makes sense,” adds Sarah.
The idea stuck with Aidan. For his Intro to Health Services class at Central his sophomore year, Aidan created a presentation based on a paper he read about being a pharmacist.
“The great thing about the health service class was they came and did a tour of the lab and imaging,” says Sarah. “When I was in school it seemed like you could either be a nurse or a doctor. I didn’t realize that there’s all these other jobs. You wouldn’t know that unless you take a class like that.”
Thanks to some new state legislation passed last spring allowing kids under the age of 18 to do such work, Aidan was able to undergo Junior Pharmacy Technician training and get certified via the Monument Health Pathways program in partnership with Central High School. He took the exam to become certified and passed on July 18.
Now, every other weekend when he’s not running cross country or track for Central, Aidan can be found reloading medications in omnicelle machines on various floors of Rapid City Hospital.
“Over winter break or next summer, I’ll get to learn how to do more stuff in the pharmacy,” he says. “Next year, I plan on going to South Dakota State University for pharmacy. I’ll probably come back in the summers and work to have money for college and to keep my hours up for certification.”
Aidan also jumped right into the culture at Monument Health, volunteering alongside his mom to serve at one of last summer’s Caregiver Picnics so he could meet and mingle with other Caregivers.
However, he credits the class offerings at Central High School for fostering his career interest. “I just think it’s a great opportunity for kids to dip their feet in the water to see if it’s something that they could do before they go to college,” he says. “I’ve had a pretty good idea since I was little that I wanted to potentially do this, but I would say that the class just really enhanced the opportunity to get experience and further make sure that I want to do it.”
Story by Kory Lanphear
Photo submitted by Sarah Hermsen