Feser accepted into No. 1 Pharmacy School in U.S.
April 22, 2025
As a Canadian resident, Hannah Feser had to choose the college she would attend during the COVID lockdown without visiting any of the campuses.
Interested in playing softball, as she learned more about Dakota State University virtually, she felt the school would be the right fit for her.
“I ended up coming here, and I loved it,” she said. “I stayed all four years.”
As a student-athlete, Feser is thankful to have professors who are willing to work around game schedules and travel for the sport. Playing third base, she also appreciated that when she first arrived at DSU, she had 20 automatic friends on the team.
With an interest in the sciences and a potential career in the healthcare field, Feser decided to major in biology with a minor in chemistry so she would have several career options to consider after graduation.
“I really like the small class sizes and having the professors know who I am and what I’m interested in,” Feser said. “I don’t know if I would have gotten the same experience if I had gone to a bigger school than DSU.”
She truly appreciates her mentors, Dr. Jeffrey Elbert, assistant professor of chemistry, and Dr. Andrew Sathoff, assistant professor and undergraduate research coordinator & coordinator for science, and the hands-on learning opportunities for students in the science department.
“It’s been really great because I’ve been able to ask professors who have had me since my first year to write recommendation letters for graduate school.”
This year, she has been working with Dr. Jeffrey Elbert, assistant professor of chemistry, on a Student Research Initiative (SRI) project to study the ethanol content in gasoline.
“We went to two different gas stations in Madison, and we’ve been collecting their 10% ethanol gasoline samples and seeing how consistent the amount of ethanol that is in it,” she explained.
“One was spot on for 10%, and one was around 5%, so the 5% customers are getting a better deal because the more ethanol in it the worse for your engine.”
Feser appreciates how research has shown her that you don’t know what might happen, and you have to learn as you go and see where the research takes you.
In addition to research, Feser is a member and leader in the TriBeta Club, a student science-focused honor society that hosts outreach events and invites speakers to campus. She’s enjoyed bringing elementary school students to campus to learn about science and participate in hands-on activities and experiments.
“It’s a lot of fun to see the students enjoy it,” she said.
As she prepares to attend the University of North Carolina’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy, the no. 1 school of pharmacy in the country, in August, Feser is most looking forward to the experiential portion of the program.
“They do a lot of immersion hours, as they call it, where you get to work in different areas of the pharmacology field,” she explained.
There are opportunities to work within a hospital, in pharmacology research, and community pharmacy, among other areas. Feser is currently interested in community pharmacy and hopes to work within a community pharmacy after completing graduate school and eventually own a pharmacy.
Her advice for other students with an interest in continuing on to graduate school is to take advantage of the many resources at Dakota State, whether that’s support from professors, participating in clubs and research, or completing mock interviews with the staff of Career and Professional Development.
“You have the resources here; you might as well use them and boost everything you do just a little bit more,” she said.