Canadian Zara Ali broadens her horizons at Binghamton
As Zara Ali considered where to apply to pharmacy school, she was encouraged by a cousin to broaden her horizons and look beyond her home in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, just across the border from Detroit, Mich. She enrolled in Binghamton University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences after convincing her parents her decision was the right one — even during a pandemic.
“During the pandemic it was harder to convince my immigrant Indian parents to be on board with my education outside of Canada. We had no idea if they would close the borders and I had already got my acceptance in November 2019,” Ali said. “I knew I wanted to go here, but I’m the eldest daughter and I have three younger sisters and it was the first time I was moving away, and to a different country and with the political climate, taking out loans — my parents never experienced that and that adds a lot of pressure, too.”
But Ali chose education over the uncertainties caused by the pandemic, and found herself crossing the border into the United States, which can sometimes be intimidating. Instead of heading for Detroit to shop or attend a concert like she might have in the past, she headed for the Detroit airport to fly to Binghamton. “The officer asked me: ‘Who told you you could cross over?’ and I told him I’m a student. You need quick replies, and they ask question after question.”
Ali had learned about Binghamton through a friend. “He told me about this school because Canada only has eight pharmacy schools and is very, very competitive, where Binghamton has a more holistic approach and it’s new,” she said. “It provides an opportunity that Canadian schools wouldn’t have. Binghamton gave me the opportunity and I got in right away.”
She came to Binghamton with an undergraduate degree in a health and biomedical stream — mainly biology and biochemistry — and believes she is on her way to an amazing career. “You can’t get much with an undergraduate degree,” she said. “You have to specialize in something. There’s a reason why I came all the way here for my interview in person, a reason why I was accepted; it’s the butterfly effect. Something happens in time for a cascade of events to happen.”
Ali settled on pharmacy as a career during her undergraduate years, volunteering at a pharmacy as well as with charitable organizations including Engineers Without Borders and Let’s Talk Science with students in classrooms. “I dipped my toes into everything, but fell back on pharmacy,” she said. “It spoke most to me in terms of a profession with perhaps the least amount of schooling, but ending up as an effective healthcare professional. “People often don’t realize how vital pharmacies are to the world. They serve to help the community and individuals in the role of a mediator and provide effective medications that can ease your daily life. I don’t want to spend my whole life in school, but do want to be able to help people and be a vital part of society.”
And, though she has no roommates, Ali is happy with her current circumstances, cooking and watching old Disney cartoons when she’s not studying. “If it was a normal semester it would have been very different,” she acknowledged. “But I know my faculty and my professors are very engaging even though I’m missing out on knowing everybody by name. I’m trying to assimilate into a completely different living situation while adapting to the reality of COVID-19.”