Armen Fstkchian, Kyle Coronato, and Mary Reilly of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences wowed the crowd with their rapid-fire answers in the final Jeopardy-style round to take home the 2019 ACCP Clinical Pharmacy Challenge title. The crowds attending the final round of the competition, held this year at the 40th Anniversary ACCP Annual Meeting in New York, were on the edge of their seats until the final round. The Colorado team and the runner-up, the Butler University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, were neck and neck until the final round. Colorado pulled away to secure the win while answering question after question from each of the following categories: Cardiovascular Disorders, Endocrinology, Hematology/Oncology, Infectious Diseases, and Potpourri. After Colorado’s win, the ACCP National Student Network Advisory Committee team reached out to the competitors to ask a few questions.

How did you choose to work together on this team?

Fstkchian: Kyle and I are the local chapter vice president and president, and we were looking for a team member after our third member fell through. I immediately had Mary in mind, so we brought on our all-star.

Coronato: She is one of the smartest people we know, and we really knew she would be a huge asset to help carry the team.

What did you do to prepare?

Coronato: We split up all of our pharmacotherapy courses, and each took one-third to review. We reviewed for about a month and a half before the competition and were able to have our areas of expertise, together with the areas we were already passionate about.

What tips or tricks do you have for future competitors?

Fstkchian: Find individuals with different strengths and strong suits to compete with. Mine would be ambulatory care. Mary’s would be just about everything, and Kyle is really strong within emergency medicine and critical care. Having a combination of people who know their career path and passions allows everyone to focus on these specific interests as well as strengths. This made it a lot easier for the “potpourri” of questions we encountered in each round of the competition.

In hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently to prepare?

All: We would have booked an earlier flight. The team only got 2 hours of sleep the night before the quarterfinal round.

Fstkchian: We all took it seriously and studied as much as we could while on rotation, as we are all P4 students. Working hard and doing well on rotations also helped a lot in preparation.

Did you have a specific plan for choosing the questions in the Jeopardy round?

Reilly: We definitely chose the categories that included our strengths first. We were then able to take off on buzzing in and answering.

Fstkchian: We chose the Infectious Disease category first because it is a strength of all of ours. Any of us could have answered the questions, which I believe gave us an advantage. After that, we went with choosing a strong suit and what we felt we could confidently answer and knew best. We trained to build a lead and then relax, which is exactly what happened.

Coronato: We all have a passion for infectious disease, which helped us gain confidence going into the final round when the Jeopardy categories were revealed.

Who was your most influential mentor?

Reilly: Drs. Toby Trujillo and Joel Marrs were our advisers for this competition; they were there for us and checked in on us to make sure we were doing well. They supported us at both the local online competitions and the national competition here in New York.

Coronato: Our critical care and ID professors did an awesome job of preparing us in school to be very competitive. All of our professors did an amazing job actually preparing us for our future careers and this competition. Without the great teaching and direction from our professors, we wouldn’t have been able to answer a lot of those questions.

Fstkchian: I want to give a special shout-out to Dr. Benjamin Chavez; I had a stressful week before the competition, and he really supported and guided me through it to help me prepare for this weekend.

What are your pharmacy career goals?

All: We all will pursue a residency this coming application cycle, and we each have our own specific areas of interest for the future.

Fstkchian: Ambulatory care.

Coronato: Critical care or emergency medicine.

Reilly: Pediatrics and hematology/oncology.

What has been your favorite part of this conference?

Fstkchian: I have really enjoyed the camaraderie between our peers and the intelligence level of all the competitors. We had a big support group, including both faculty and students from CU. It was really great to see everyone here. CU is a big participator in ACCP, and we really buy into the organization, which was apparent by the support we had at the final round. Everyone was here supporting us and backing us up. We have such a family environment within our program.

Fun things you’ve done in New York and closing thoughts?

Fstkchian: Beautiful rooftop with a gorgeous night view of the city. I felt like I was in a Batman comic book.

Coronato: Visiting friends and family.

All: The competition was a fun way to prepare for the NAPLEX, and we will enjoy being prepared for the future.