LARAMIE - University of Wyoming pharmacy student Shanna O'Connor has earned an unprecedented appointment with Child Family Health International.

Thanks in part to a $2,500 scholarship from the UW College of Health Sciences, O'Conner will spend one month in Cape Town, South Africa, participating in a program that allows students to gain field experience and learn about medical practices in an international setting. The Atlanta native is the first UW pharmacy student to be part of the CFHI program.

"I've had really good feedback from the pharmacy school, and it sounds like this might turn into an opportunity for University of Wyoming students," she said. "If it's an experience that I gain a lot from, then UW is more likely to send students of the health professions to study abroad, and CFHI could be more willing to look to pharmacy students."

CFHI Executive Director Steve Schmidbauer said that is just what his organization is hoping to do.

"Our programs are typically attended by medical and pre-medical students, but in recent years we have been actively working to have a more diverse group of students," Schmidbauer said.

CFHI is a San Francisco-based non-profit organization. In 2008, it sent more than 800 students in the medical field to countries such as Ecuador, Mexico, India and various locations in Africa.

Because of her background in pharmacy, O'Connor has the unique opportunity to tailor her experience to her own professional goals. She will change locations weekly in Cape Town, working in hospitals and clinics to gain a fuller understanding of the occupation.

"South Africa has a really high rate of HIV and AIDS, and I haven't had a lot of experience with those patients in Wyoming or in the Denver area," O'Connor said. "I really want to get more experience with that.

"But," she added, "I have to be proactive in deciding the people and places I want to work with."

Schmidbauer is pleased to integrate O'Connor's skills with CFHI's mission.

"As a pharmacy student, she is an example of how there has been a surge in interest in global health among many students of the health professions," he said. "It's wonderful to see Shanna take this so seriously and try to get such a meaningful experience out of it."

CFHI's programs are often in partnership with universities as a means of gaining course credit, but O'Connor is interested in gaining a unique perspective on her profession.

"Obviously it's going to be different," she said. "I'm going to contend with different medications, and a different approach to treating the disease in South Africa."

O'Connor has been working with faculty members in the College of Pharmacy to whom she will report her experience, as well as with international advisors to help structure her time in Cape Town. She will live in the home of a retired couple who, O'Connor said, are excited to have her staying with them.

In the future, O'Connor hopes to be involved in the management of diseases, specifically diabetes or HIV/AIDS. Long-term management is where O'Connor sees the diseases sharing commonalities.

"Now we can keep an HIV patient alive as long as a type 1 or type 2 diabetic, but it involves some drastic lifestyle changes and major drug interactions," she said. "It's a very unique setting for a pharmacist to step into."

O'Connor is confident that her time in South Africa will be a success. As an undergraduate, she studied in Ireland, so the cultural changes may not be such a shock to her. And yet, for all of her confidence, there is still an element of fear.

"I hear there are a lot of snakes," O'Connor said. "But all of that is secondary to the work. That's what I'm excited about."