New Dalhousie scholarship seeks to open doors for African Nova Scotian pharmacy students
Nova Scotia pharmacist Natalie Borden, current CEO of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada (ISMP Canada), hopes to make the path into pharmacy a little easier for African Nova Scotian students than it was for her.
The new Natalie Borden Scholarship in Pharmacy will provide $4,000 annually to an African Nova Scotian student entering Dalhousie University’s PharmD program. Renewable for all four years, it will provide up to $16,000, with preference given to students from Pictou County.
For Borden, a 1994 graduate of Dalhousie’s College of Pharmacy, creating the scholarship is a way to help others overcome some of the barriers she faced herself.
“I was inspired to create this scholarship as another way of giving back to my community,” she said. “Having experienced some of the barriers that result from the legacy of systemic racism in Nova Scotia, I see this as a way of addressing the financial aspect of an education that can be a challenge for African Nova Scotian students.”
Coming from a low-income, single-parent family, Borden knows first-hand how financial pressures can affect a university education. She paid for her own education and other expenses while working throughout university.
“I would have benefitted from a scholarship like this, so I hope that this will relieve some of the burden for someone else, so they don't have the same difficulties,” she said.
Before becoming CEO of ISMP Canada, Borden had worked in community pharmacy, private insurance and benefits consulting, and held senior leadership roles with the Province of Nova Scotia and IWK Health. She has also taught and mentored students at Dalhousie and the Nova Scotia Community College.
Her experiences with students reinforced the importance of representation. While working with pharmacy students at Dalhousie, Borden recalls a Black student telling her she felt a sense of “relief and comfort” attending Borden’s sessions because she knew Borden would understand her lived experience.
“During my training and career, I did not see many others from my community so I want to ensure that I am helping change that,” Borden said. She also sees greater representation in pharmacy as having implications beyond the profession itself.
“The evidence also demonstrates that when health professionals, including pharmacists, share similar backgrounds with their patients, it improves health outcomes, communication and patient trust,” she said. “As pharmacists, we are all about better health outcomes for patients so this aligns with my professional responsibility too.”
Borden hopes the scholarship will encourage others to find their own ways of supporting students. “My career has been good to me, so I am in a position to do this, but every contribution, big or small, makes a difference for my community.”
