getting lunch and talking, having them in my home.” Conn knows he is the older student, but he’s made that work. He struggled mightily with Greek at Bob Jones, but it’s going better for him at Cedarville. He recently had lunch with a younger and struggling Greek student and taught him some ways to prepare for an exam. “I think it's helpful for people to see an old guy and that it was hard for him, but he's not giving up,” Conn said. WE ARE A ‘PHARMILY’ Aleda Chen, the School of Pharmacy’s Associate Dean, admits the term ‘pharmily’ is geeky. But she smiles every time she says it because she sees students learn to love and trust each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. “They have potlucks together, they help one another study and make it through classes,” she said. “They're from incredibly different backgrounds, different countries, different languages, different life experiences, and to see them all come together and be able to say, ‘this is how this person has impacted my life and how we've learned and grown together,’ it's just a really beautiful thing. And it really symbolizes who we are as Christians.” Pharmacy students sit in class together every morning for two hours with their P1, P2, or P3 group. After chapel at 10 a.m., the groups join for a professional hour that takes many forms. Speakers come in and share, they hold org meetings or planning meetings for events, etc. Now and then the school caters lunch for them. Then it’s back to class in the afternoon. “It's the best part, actually,” Bilesanmi said. “Don't get me wrong, we're all here for education, but sometimes you need a destresser, and they know how to find balances.” Chen and her colleagues don’t limit the outside-of-class interaction to the school day. They start the school year with the Back-At-It Barbecue, close fall semester with a Christmas party and catered food, and highlight spring semester with another catered event that emphasizes the school’s mission. "I know that we all appreciate it a lot,” said Haylee Moser ’21, PharmD ’24, a P3 fromMichigan. “It's just an extra step to show that they care. And it’s fun.” The P3 group might be the most diverse group of students on campus, but the school’s efforts to build community helps them bond more closely than they thought possible. Almost half of them did their undergrad work at other schools, but they are roommates, they go to church together, and many of them call each other their best friends. When Bilesanmi arrived on campus, Moser had been here for three years as an undergrad. They quickly became friends. Moser said most of her friends not only didn’t start college at Cedarville, but they grew up in Africa, Spanishspeaking countries, and parts of Asia. Bilesanmi and others cook food from their homelands and share it. “Ge t t i ng t o know o t he r cu l t u r e s , t he f ood , mu s i c , everything like that, has been rea l l y cool , ” Moser sa id. “ I wouldn’ t have that exposure anywhere else.” Chen marvels at how the students, particularly the P3 class of 2022–23, love each other. “They celebrate each other's differences and similarities, and the similarity being that they all love Jesus,” she said. “I've heard that from them time and time again. We're all different, but we all love Jesus. And that's our starting point.” Jeff Gilbert ’87 is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Cedarville University. Cedarville Magazine | 23
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