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How Camille Schrier, PharmD Student, became Miss America 2020, and the business lessons that have come along with that title.
Transcript Disclaimer: This transcript is generated using speech-to-text technology and may contain errors or inaccuracies.
Mike Koelzer, Host: [00:00:00] Camille for those who haven't come across you online, introduce yourself and tell our listeners what we're talking about today.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I'm Camille Schrier. I was Miss Virginia 2019 and was Miss America 2020. But outside of that, I'm a pharmacy student. I graduated with degrees in biochemistry and systems biology, and I'm an advocate for stem education and drug safety and abuse prevention.
And we're going to just talk a little bit about how miss America has really affected my life and really my future career aspirations and prospects, which is kind of the entire intent of the miss America program is to set young women up on a springboard to be able to have a really successful feature after their year.
Mike Koelzer, Host: All right now 2020, but you're the first two year winner.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I'm not actually what there's others. There is a Miss America in, I think it was 1922 in 1926. Mary Katherine Campbell. She actually won twice, so I didn't win twice. I don't think I would've won a second time. And quite honestly, this is my second year.
I'm not serving in my full-time capacity. I'm really getting back to kind of my normal life and being able to go back to school this year, which was a real priority for me. So I didn't win twice. So I can't really claim that I'm a two year old Miss America.
Mike Koelzer, Host: First of all, congratulations. And what a pleasure.
to have you on
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Thank you Thank you so much.
Mike Koelzer, Host: It's not every day that Mr. America gets to talk to Miss America.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I love that.
Mike Koelzer, Host: No, one's going to check my
credentials.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I get asked if there's a Mr. America all the time. So just say that you are, that
Mike Koelzer, Host: that's probably
Mr. Olympia or something.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I am sure
Mike Koelzer, Host: those bodybuilders Who needs them
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: You know what it's very different from what I do.
And so I figure, Hey, you guys can enter whatever you'd like to. Yeah,
Mike Koelzer, Host: Camille, I read that miss America travels like 20,000 miles a month.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Absolutely normally during non COVID non pandemic times, Miss America is often on a plane every day, every other day, changing cities and doing appearances across the country.
So that was my reality for about three months, and then COVID happened. So I won at the end of 2019, and then had the end of December, January, February until mid-March where all of this, all of us, the world, our businesses, everything shut down and my job completely changed, uh, unexpectedly. And so I went from traveling 20,000 miles a month to zero.
And, uh, I did a few trips here and there at the end of the year, but my travel was greatly diminished throughout that process. And I had to learn how to adapt and miss America from home.
Mike Koelzer, Host: Was that depressing?
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: No, it actually wasn't, it was a little bit of a shock at first, but I, one of the things that I was the most apprehensive about winning Miss America was the travel I like to travel.
But the idea of not ever going home for multiple months at a time was not sitting well with me. And I knew I'd have to deal with it because that's part of the job, but then magically, I didn't have to deal with that. It'd be more and I have a genetic disorder. So I have, um, something called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome where I struggle with chronic pain, chronic fatigue, and just general, like some days I'm just really unwell.
And the idea of being able to maintain that type of a lifestyle at that type of pace. My condition was terrifying to me. And so it was really funny cause I feel like I'm a believer of being at the right place at the right time. And so for some reason I became Miss America from home, which was really beneficial, my physical health as well.
So I'm actually okay with it.
Mike Koelzer, Host: Okay. So you were a two year winner because of COVID they couldn't have the other contest because of that. Did they say, well, Camille, we're going to calm things down the second year or was it just the path you were supposed to have been on the tour would have taken a year and then there was nothing else to do for the year.
Why did it slow down for the second
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: year? I really liked that. I would say because I. Never really intended to do any of this. I entered one local competition back in the beginning of 2019 kind of thinking I would never even place because
Mike Koelzer, Host: you had taken like six years off from your pageant life.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Right? I never thought I would do it again.
And I had competed as a teenager and I got a lot out of it. I learned public speaking. I learned how to interview. I was really comfortable in front of people and I was able to then Excel in internships and in my courses where I had to present research projects and explain things in a way that, you know, a lot of my peers didn't have the skillset to be able to communicate in those high pressure situations.
And that was something. So I feel like I got out of it, what I wanted to and miss America was just, you know, an idea of like, oh, it's like the super bowl, right? It's like, oh, maybe one day I [00:05:00] could miss America, but it wasn't super interesting in the swimsuit competition and they didn't know what I would do for a talent.
And then the swimsuit went away and I said, you know what? This is my last year. I could really ever do this. I was sitting in pharmacy school and I decided to enter a competition that led to Miss Virginia. And I really didn't think I would win that. And I did. So I got the opportunity to go to Miss Virginia.
And then I won. Miss Virginia had to take a year off of my education and then subsequently won Miss America and took a second year off of my education. So when I realized that my potential term would be extended, I was really worried because my intent was never to leave by education. It was really secondary.
Symptom of this entire process and the idea of not being able to return as a full-time student this year, didn't sit with me well, and I, especially, you know, this organization is a scholarship program, so I won almost $80,000 to go toward my higher education, which is a wonderful gift. And I wanted to be able to use that.
So especially in a doctor of pharmacy program, you know, we talk about pharmacy as a, as an industry and really as a career, I was one year into that four year doctoral program. So taking two years off in the middle of that, I already had some knowledge from the first year and was trying to figure out how I could reintegrate to get into years two, three, and four, and having a three-year gap didn't seem feasible for me.
I wanted to make sure that I got back in and I could be academically successful. Looking toward your two being 2021. For me, I was really adamant that I needed to get back to more of a normal life for myself to allow myself to then come back to where I was living to go to school and then allow myself to go back to school.
So I have only about two or three months now until I'm back as a full-time student. And so now I'm doing a few things here and there. I'm reintegrating to my home where I go to school and getting really mentally and academically prepared to head back there. So that's really the big change in the second year for me.
And I definitely led that.
Mike Koelzer, Host: I want to talk about Camille, the difference between second place and first place. All right. Cause there's no way that you are going to think you're gonna go there and win. I mean, no. I'm sure your mother thought that and
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: really did think I was going to win.
Mike Koelzer, Host: You can't think you're going to win out of 50 people?
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Absolutely not. I ran the statistics in my head. I remember I was asleep the night before the competition and I'm like, okay, well, there were eight people at the first competition. So like one out of eight chances, times like one out of 24, I miss Virginia times one at a 51 at Miss America. I'm like, this is like a one in 8,000 something kinda chance.
I'm like no way, no way. But you know, sometimes the world has different plans for you. When did
Mike Koelzer, Host: You know that you had a chance? I mean, you always had a chance, but when did you just say, I think I might get this
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Well, I won one of the preliminary awards at Miss America. And so for the talent, yes, I did. I won the preliminary talent award and I'll back up for just a second and explain a little bit about how the Miss America organization works because we are scored in a variety of competitions.
So we have our interview competition. We have an on-stage question, which I think goes into our interviews. We have talent. And so there's these different areas, but talent is 50% of your preliminary score. Oh, wow. So knowing that I got the preliminary talent award that told me that I was within half of the women that I was, so I competed with half of the women for that evening.
And so there's two prelim talent winners. I knew that I had the highest talent score in half of the group and likely because that was 50% of the preliminary score was going to allow me to move forward on the live telecast. So I kind of knew that just in terms of numbers, I'm thinking, I think I did pretty well in my interview.
I think I did pretty well in the other areas of competition. So is knowing that that score is really the highest. I'm thinking I might move forward. I didn't really ever think there was not a point in time where I was like, I'm going to win. I mean, even the way they did the show, we were even narrowed down to two before the last commercial break.
So the two of us were like, okay, we know it's one of us. Yeah. But I really liked the other woman who ended up being my first runner up. And I was really convinced in my mind that she would win because she had a lot of the skills and the, really the, she, she was she would have been an amazing miss America.
And I really liked her. She was a really nice person, Miss Georgia, and, um, her and I still chat to this [00:10:00] day and we have a great relationship. And I think that it was almost like apples and oranges at that point, because you have a very traditional operatic vocalist from Georgia who has competed before she has the skill.
She looks like a mismatch, Erica, and then you have this. Newbie who was like, I don't really know what I'm doing here and I'm going to do this science thing. And I am totally okay with being different, which she is too. And it's like, you got a scientist and an operatic vocalist, and it's like, where are we going to, what are we going to pick here?
It's going to be different. And so if they picked her, I was like, cool. They wanted oranges and I have an apple. That's fine. Um, and it was actually interesting too, because we were both a little bit different. She had a very distinct haircut too. So she had a shorter haircut, which is a little bit non-traditional in the pageant world.
You think of it like long curly extensions and all of that. And she just totally rocked her own look. And I loved that about her and just a nice woman. So, you know, we were talking about the difference between if I had been in second place, she, you know, got to go home as Miss Georgia. And the interesting thing is I went into that final show.
Totally fine. That if I walked out of that last place, I would still miss Virginia. And I gotta go home as Miss Virginia. I felt more, more pressure, I would say at Miss Virginia, because I felt like I had the capability to, when I felt like I had the skills to win. And if I didn't win Miss Virginia, I didn't have quite the same platform as the woman who would win.
Right. So if you're miss America, you know, if you're going to miss America, you're already a state title holder. So you still have this wonderful platform to fall back on. If you don't win Miss America. And that's kind of the beautiful thing. And I honestly think that the attitude going in that if I didn't win that I was okay with that allowed me to just allow myself to show through, instead of being so focused on.
Winning and what was the right way to win and all of these things. And I was just like, you know what, at the end of the day, if this doesn't work out in my favor, I'm going to go back and do all of the things that I already wanted to do. Anyway,
Mike Koelzer, Host: It's hard though, to go in and say, oh, I miss Virginia, but I don't care about the big one.
Who was it? Like what's Taylor swift or I forget who it was, it might've been Katy Perry or some, but they were crying because they only got like three Grammys instead of five or something like that. So we all want that next thing.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: And I think that it wasn't even necessarily that I didn't care about it or didn't value it or didn't want it.
But I was so lucky to even be there. I think that I, and I never expected to be there. And I, it was really out of my, like, out of really what my reality would have been to even be at Miss America.
Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. And you had your six years
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: off. Yeah. It was never really a priority in my life. I'll say that. And so. For me, I was just grateful for whatever I could get out of the experience and it, it didn't define me.
And I think that that's part of this is that there's this expectation that if you're miss America, that this must be your life dream, this must have been everything you've ever wanted in your life. And now you've finally gotten it like what a gift. And I'm sure that that's true for some people, but for me, that wasn't accurate.
It was never a dream of mine. As a little kid. I always dreamed of being a scientist and being in a lab and understanding, you know, that I would go through my higher education and have this really great career prospect. That was always what I dreamed of. And in some ways I think that in my mind, I was like, oh my gosh, this is going to potentially.
Take time away from that career prospect dream that I've always had. And so it was a little bit scary to think of spending this time to focus on Miss America, but what a great platform. And now that I've done the job, I've understood how it's going to then supplement my career goals. But, you know, I think it's really antiquated for a lot of the public to think that Miss America would just only ever dream of being Miss America.
Instead of having all of these other dreams and goals, which are much more longer term, you know, you can really only ever be miss America once, even if it's during a pandemic and it's a little extended, but I always say if miss America is your life goal, you should probably reevaluate your life goals because there should be bigger and greater goals than doing this.
It's a launching pad. It should help you get to your bigger goals in life. Are there
Mike Koelzer, Host: any negatives. Not this year, but like, are there any negatives, like five years from now that you were miss America or 10 years from now, do you see any negatives with that?
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I don't, I don't see that. [00:15:00] I
Mike Koelzer, Host: don't either.
I'm just wondering if you're afraid of anything, like, like I wanted to be a rat in a Blab somewhere and I was miss America, snow. I've got to do something different.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: You can let it be a negative. I think if you allow yourself to be distracted, By these crazy things that come at you when you miss America, people will offer you the craziest deals. Maybe, oh, do you want to do a TV show with me?
Oh, do you want to do this brand campaign with me? Oh, we'll pay you money to do this or that because they see you as this fresh figure and they hand you these opportunities, which potentially could be great. Right. That's awesome. Right. But if I look back at who I am, right? Like I didn't come into this to be a celebrity.
I didn't come into this to be a full-time influencer or those types of, you know, roles that some people do get. Maybe people enjoy the spotlight or in the notoriety of having that type of a role. If I allowed myself to be distracted by those types of things, then I could potentially derail my academic and career focus that I've had.
The entire time. If you allow this to help be kind of a paid internship and help pay for your education, it can be a huge blessing and a help, but there are some things and you have to really assess who you are through that process. I'm not saying you shouldn't take those deals if that's what you've always dreamed of doing, but you have to go back and figure out who am I and not allow those other types of things to take your focus off what your end goal is because that's where you can kind of fall down a rabbit hole, because you do have so many opportunities opened up to you and you have to know that you're one person with a certain amount of time and a certain amount of resources to be able to really find, you know, the path that you want to get.
So that's kind of, I think that if you allow that to be, you know, I don't want to say that that's even a negative, but that's something that I'm cognizant of because I've had really cool opportunities, but then I kind of stepped back and I say, I don't have time to do that. I have to go back to school and finish my education.
And then I really want to work in the pharmaceutical industry. And that's just not aligned with my career prospects and goals. I'm going to pass that opportunity up and allow that to go to somebody who maybe that is part of their path. Do you have
Mike Koelzer, Host: Someone feeling those things for you? No,
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: It's really me right now.
Mike Koelzer, Host: So they come in through the email and then you're stacking them up and
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: looking at them. I have some great advisors that helped me kind of go through them, but I, uh, I'm a one woman show right now and I kind of love it because I allow myself to be able to filter through the opportunities to see what I like.
Some things are, I am able to do. Like there's silly things. Like, I don't even want to say silly things, but there's certain clothing brands and companies that I've loved and admired for years. And now I'm able to do certain things with them, um, which sometimes align with what I want to do. And, you know, it's, it's interesting.
I like to be able to see what comes in. Very interesting because I've gone from just being a student in the classroom, learning information about pharmaceuticals and that kind of the whole world of pharmacy to then stepping out and really being this public figure in pharmacy in an odd way, because I'm not even licensed yet.
Um, but then also having kind of this role of being a young woman in a stem and in a stem career and talking a lot about professionalism and, you know, women in stem and all of these different things on my social platforms. And so it's just been a very unique experience that two years ago, sitting in a classroom, I would have never expected, but has definitely let me grow in ways that I wouldn't have expected either.
Mike Koelzer, Host: Camille. All right. So here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that we put all these things together with you doing this. Portion and doing the science experiment in it. And then coming in and not having typical social media, you know, yours is more, more genuine, you know, and not flaunting everything, you know, and then talking about school and this kind of stuff.
And I'm thinking that secretly, you're just a master
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: marketer. I don't think I'm a master marketer, but I think that I understand the market. I think that when I started this, I realized that I was a product. And so for reference, my parents are business owners and my parents, I grew up in a small business environment.
I spent my summers under a desk in an office and would make copies and run reports like an eight year old instead of being at summer camp. So I kind of grew up with it. [00:20:00] Idea in my mind is that you need to have a product that's, you know, valuable to people around you and understanding what has demand. So the moral of the story is I kind of started this as an accident and said, you know what, maybe I could ever miss America and I'm going to do this science demonstration.
And then I started to realize that there were a lot of people that were really interested in having a woman in a stem who potentially was more feminine than what they would expect a woman in stem to be in their minds. So I then became the science princess and that was what really took off,
Mike Koelzer, Host: uh, science princess.
Did you do something on social media with that or, or just in your head? In my head, just in your head, you were the science princess.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I started to recognize that there was value in the science princess,
Mike Koelzer, Host: princess. How did you label it? That?
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Cause I did science with my crown on and so I'm the princess and I come in and I do science and everyone goes crazy.
And the little girls are interested in science princess because they see me as like the additional Disney princess that has a lab
coat
Mike Koelzer, Host: on. You would do this, like after Miss Virginia or something, you sort of did this in there.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Right. And so it was interesting because I never thought that I could compete because of this talent portion.
And then I figured out something to do for the talent portion. And then that became the product that the people wanted, which was the science piece. And that really took
Mike Koelzer, Host: off, you filled that hole right in someone's mind, you know, and it's a cliche, but the first man on the moon was Neil Armstrong. And no one remembers the third guy on the moon or the fourth guy on the moon.
Right. So you were the. Well, w probably one of the first science princesses in miss America, right? I was
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: probably the first that made it a big deal. Like going back to your point, maybe I am the master marketer. Maybe I don't give myself enough credit. No, I think
Mike Koelzer, Host: You do. I think you're teasing us. I think you had this plan inside of you compete
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: for something like this.
And I think that that is, this is one of the most valuable pieces of competing at Miss America is you understand how to sell yourself and explain why you are the best product for that job or the best person to do that job. So. The point is that I started to realize that the science princess was a big deal to people.
I started to really integrate that into the way that I did my job and the way that I was able to explain why I would bring value to that position and the
Mike Koelzer, Host: position of being the spokesperson for miss
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: America, Ms. Virginia, at that point, right? So I'm like, this is what I'm going to do is miss Virginia.
There's a huge demand for this. People are interested in it. I can be a role model for women. I do these scholarships, chemical companies, all of these different things that I can talk about. Talk to me. I had a plan for how I was going to use science to extend my job as Miss Virginia. And then ultimately as Miss America, I was then able to capture more media because the media was excited about it.
I got to go on national broadcasts and show science with little girls, and I was able to continue to. Your world right now is interested in having a scientist be Miss America. And what I will say is that there were plenty of women before me who had science degrees who loved science, who ultimately pursued careers in medicine and many other different stem disciplines, but never really went to miss America and were like, Hey, I'm the science girl.
And I'm going to make science the forefront of who I am as a person. And science is the product that I'm offering. You. Certainly not
Mike Koelzer, Host: the talent
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: part of it. Exactly. Now there was one woman before I will say. Science as her talent at Miss America in 2015. And what she did, she did almost the exact demonstration that I did.
And I drew a lot of inspiration from her and she got to be there to see me do it at Miss America this year. Her name is Elena Westcom and she's from Vermont. She was Miss Vermont 2015. So
Mike Koelzer, Host: did she
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: get in Miss America? She did not place in the final show, but she did get a preliminary non finalist talent award.
What do you have? She didn't have, um, I'm not sure if I would, that would be up to the judges more than me, but I definitely took the things that she had displayed in her demonstration and made them my own. I think. I want to be kind of like the quirky scientist. Who's really excited about what I'm doing and, you know, we did the same demonstration, but we did it very differently.
And I don't think that there was anything wrong with the way that she did it. I just did it my way. And yeah. I think more than anything, I'll tell you it was even five years down the road. I think that it was a different time to be able to be a woman doing a science demonstration on TV. Uh, it was a different place in the organization, right?
It was the first, I guess it was technically the second year that it was really miss America, 2.0 where the physical component was completely removed from the judging criteria. It was no longer a beauty pageant. I saw that in
Mike Koelzer, Host: 2018.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Yes. And so she completed it prior to that. And I think that it was the right time [00:25:00] to come in and say, I'm going to bring academics and science to the forefront of this.
And I don't really care about the external perspective. So I think that that could have been part of the difference. I think that she had a great idea. It just, maybe wasn't at the right time. And I was grateful to, I will say I was thrilled to have her there to see it because. I never wanted her to feel like I was taking her idea and stealing it or copying it, but that I was celebrating it and she got to be there to celebrate it with me.
And, uh, we always joke that, you know, she was the first, but she was happy not to be the last one of
Mike Koelzer, Host: The things I follow pretty closely is where these bands are getting sued because it sounds too close to something else. And from what I have come across that fashion has the opposite of that, where fashion doesn't really have patents.
And unfortunately some people get screwed because of it where someone invents a new clothing line with certain buttons and things like that. And someone else copies it. But the value of having more freedom for that is that fashion can really take off because ideas are borrowed without worrying about there's some bad actors.
Without worrying so much, you can take ideas and just fly with them. And music's the same way, like Franklin or what's his name? Who's the guy that did Phantom of the opera, a Webber. I dunno if you even know
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: that show. I do. Um, Andrew,
Mike Koelzer, Host: Andrew Lloyd Weber. Yeah. He gets in trouble for lifting a few tunes here and there, like some melodies and for awhile, I didn't want to watch him anymore because I thought, well, he's stealing it, but there's beauty in that of them borrowing stuff and then putting it into their own format and changing and things like that.
So I think you're right on target by seeing that. Changing it a little bit, you know, and, and making a
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: work. I just wished that I could put a footnote with the reference on it. Kind of like you wouldn't like an academic paper to be like, Hey, I took this idea from this person and I really liked it. So here's the paper that I referenced.
And I think that was. What I was concerned about, especially I'm taking it and, you know, I think of copyrights, you think of trademarks and not that it's protected, but just to,
Mike Koelzer, Host: But Camille, look at this, do you think that the ballot or the pianists or something like that, they worry about the ones there's been a million of those, right?
They don't footnote all those
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: you're right. You're absolutely right. But I knew that it was different. And so people would be looking at it and potentially recognize it from five years before
Mike Koelzer, Host: recognizing it from the last time they were on. Yeah.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: It was the only other time that a science demonstration had been at Miss America.
And so I wanted to make sure, and I really tried to celebrate her through that process. Yeah. Well, that's nice of you. And really she did help mentor me and help me kind of figure out the logistics of how I would do this, uh, before I even ever did the local competition. So shout out to miss Vermont. She's awesome.
She's in medical school now, so that's nice. So she's definitely, um, used her experience and her scholarship money to go. Pursue her dreams. So I'm really proud of that. So
Mike Koelzer, Host: What are the things you have up your sleeve as a master marketer that you're going to pull out and no one's going to realize that you're even doing it.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Oh my gosh. Well, if I gave away all my secrets, then it wouldn't be fun anymore.
Mike Koelzer, Host: But come on, give us a little bit, I
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: have a couple of things. So I'll go first into a little bit about what I want to do professionally and that's to work in the pharmaceutical industry. And I joke with my family that I've gotten a, um, experiential MBA this year through being miss America, understanding how to, first of all, work for a nonprofit and how to create a, create yourself as a product, right.
And be able to sell that and understand, um, kind of supply and demand, just really the way that business works. And I had worked as a business development intern when I did work in a pharmaceutical company for two years, and I really enjoyed the way of science and business. Intertwined in pharmaceuticals because it's one of the ways in our society that we're using science and selling it as a product to the general population, which is quite interesting to me.
And that was the reason why I went to pharmacy school. And there was a time at which I thought about combining it with an MBA more formally, and then combining my pharm D potentially with a PhD for a period of time, I considered that. But now I think that my experience as Miss America has given me the secondary piece of the education that I was seeking and taking these two years to not only understand business, but understand pharmacy because one of my primary roles as Miss America has been to advocate for drug safety and abuse prevention.
And so I've worked everywhere from. In the pharmacy space where I'm talking to pharmacists about how they can help prevent [00:30:00] abuse, uh, of the medications that they're dispensing, how to help educate their patients on safe storage, safe disposal, uh, and preventing medication errors with kids, uh, preventing poisonings too.
You know, sometimes I'll end up in a recovery center with people that are facing substance use disorders. And I'm talking to them from more of a medical professional, uh, perspective, but also as a human who has met so many people who have gone through substance use disorders. And so. I'm going to go back and get my pharmacy degree and then potentially work for a manufacturer that could produce a medication that has an addiction potential for that patient.
And that's given me a really unique perspective that I hope to be able to apply when I do get into work and say, you know what? I've been to thousands of recovery centers across the country, spoken to thousands of people who have faced substance use disorder. Many of which have faced that after taking a prescription medication.
And so what are, what are we as a company going to do to mitigate that? How are we going to help keep patients safe? That's what pharmacists do. We're medication experts. And our goal is to keep our patients safe and allow them to have the best experience with whatever medication that they're taking to reduce the side effects, to allow them to have the most effective treatment.
So for me, I'd like to take the business perspective that I've learned. The human perspective and experience that I've gotten out of this job and potentially work in leadership somewhere in a pharmaceutical company, whether that be business development or somewhere within an organization where I'm able to take all of the pieces.
And also the communication perspective of explaining these difficult topics to people having the science background, but then being able to also be a liaison to people that don't have the science background. I do that all the time. Now. I kind of joke that I'm like a science translator, because we need those people to be able to read a journal article from a research publication and then be able to explain it to the rest of the team in an effective way.
So I now have all of these different skill sets that I would've never had if I hadn't been miss America. So that's really what I'm hoping to do from a career perspective, but yeah. The science princess, what do we do with the science princess? I'd like to do a lot more with that idea as well, potentially, you know, having product lines down the road, where I'm able to create things for young women and men in stem, mostly for kids, allowing them to have, you know, things in their science education that make it normal to have like a princess, uh, so that they can also see a quality in women in stem.
And we've made it really, really far. But I think that it's important, especially for a little girl who maybe has an interest like I did in sciences, but doesn't see anybody that looks like her in a profession that she's interested in. That can be really important. And it's something that I wish that I had when I was a little girl.
Mike Koelzer, Host: How do you get there? Camille? I can understand the one benefit that you were talking about. A lot of that comes out just anecdotally in interviews. It's like, well, when I was miss America, oh, I'd failed to mention. The part about the, uh, science princess, where do you go from here in that? Do you have an idea or something?
I mean, cause that makes a lot of sense, right? I mean, are you going to do all that on your own? I
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: don't know. It depends. Um, I am working on trademarking some things right now to protect the ideas. But the interesting thing with trademarks is that you have to trademark in a certain classification. So you have to have kind of an idea of what you'd like to create to trademark.
So it's not like I can just trademark the name and say like, oh, I'm protecting this name under every single classification for everything. It doesn't work that way. Um, and that's been one of the things that I've gotten to learn. I think that I would've never known in pharmacy school. Right. So I'm starting to kind of come up with some ideas of things that I might like to create.
And also with my mind, your meds initiative that I've worked on as Miss America for education and, you know, medication safety and abuse prevention that I've worked on. Yeah. Potentially, could that be some type of a product or an educational line down the road? Who knows? Um, I think that that's one of the interesting things that I've been able to grow through.
This is, you know, having the opportunity to be able to talk to people about these important issues and being invited to talk about these issues, even as someone who hasn't even practiced yet is quite an amazing opportunity that I hope to really keep, uh, and be able to continue as I do get down. And I constantly think about the fact that, you know, I get these opportunities now as a student.
And when I do finally get my pharmacy degree and go out into work, what other opportunities will I get down the line that will allow me to do this and do it more? Uh, this should never, you know, when, when my years miss America, These projects won't end, just because my time with a crown on my head has come to an end.
How many more years do you have in pharmacy school? Three more years, actually,
Mike Koelzer, Host: in [00:35:00] my case, it's like, I'm an old fat guy, you know? I mean, I only have so many options, you know, I can do a podcast because nobody sees me, you know, and maybe my voice I can say is younger than my looks are, you know, fair enough.
Right. You've got so many opportunities in front of you. I'm picturing you, Camille, you're sitting in class. Nine months from now. And you say, screw this. I mean, I know you can do them while you're in school, especially with the internet and all that stuff, but it's like, I'm predicting, you might sit there and say, screw this and walk out.
Or like, wait till the teacher gives you a lesser grade than you think you should have gotten. And you could say, I got better marks in the Miss America contest, screw this. I'm out of here.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I have to go back to the way that this started, I never intended to leave my program. And part of the reason that I decided to go to pharmacy school to begin with was that I knew after working in that pharmaceutical company, that my options were going to be limited at some point, by the degree that I had, and only having a bachelor's degree while I had two bachelor's degrees, but that didn't really make any difference that without a master's and especially a doctoral degree, In something, what was your bachelor's in by the way, biochemistry.
And then I had a second one in systems biology. Okay. All right. Um, but without a doctoral degree, I was going to be limited in certain jobs that I would be able to take down the road. And I knew that I wasn't a good fit for a PhD program. I don't have the patience to do research for six years. So focused.
Yeah. It's too much. It was just not my personality. I wanted to get a doctorate in something to allow myself to advance in an organization because I knew that that was going to open up a huge amount of doors for me down the road in
Mike Koelzer, Host: leadership, maybe. Right.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Even, and that's where I want to go is the leadership piece.
And I never wanted my degree to be the reason I couldn't apply for a position because I knew that I would eventually get the experience. Um, but having that higher degree would allow me to advance a lot faster.
Mike Koelzer, Host: Have a lot of stuff and you can miss America, but that doesn't necessarily pull you through 10 years from now when you're trying to move up in a medical organization or something, right?
Yes. That opens some doors, but it doesn't carry you all the way through to the top or wherever you want to be.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Exactly having the communication and the, uh, really the life experiences that being miss America can bring you is wonderful. But then really applying that with the more traditional academic realm, I think is what's going to allow me to be most successful down the road.
And I will say I will walk across that stage in 2024, even if someone has to drag me, because for a lot of reasons, it's so important for me to finish that piece of my education, to allow myself to have the opportunities to. You know what people could decide one day that, you know, miss America stupid, like everything you did that year, that just doesn't matter.
But no one can argue with the piece of paper that says doctor of pharmacy on it and say that I passed a licensing exam, no one argues with that. You can have your opinions on whatever I've done in my life, but you can't argue with education. And I think that it's always important. To have that educational base.
If that's what's right for your path. I'm not saying that everyone has to go to college, go to a trade school, do whatever you need to do to get to where you want in your career. But I know that with what I want to do, that I need to have a certain level of education to allow me to get there. It doesn't even have to be a PhD.
It doesn't have to be, you know, that I need to have a doctoral level degree. It would be probably better if it was a PhD in some positions, but that's fine. I'm not cut out of the mix with my pharm D but it's going to allow me to get to where I want to go. And so I will go back and I'm actually going to be thrilled to be a student again, I'll tell you because oftentimes.
I have to walk into the room and entertain everyone for an hour or two hours and teach everyone something and be on. And now I can sit in the classroom and I get to be talked at, and that sounds like a wonderful change for me.
Mike Koelzer, Host: That'd be a nice change because yeah, you got a lot of pressure on you to be the leader in smiling and all that
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: crap.
Some days I'm just not as bubbly or, you know, excited as I want to be. But I think that it's important that I've just started to realize that I have the capability to come into a room and get everyone's attention and be able to keep people's attention even on a day that I'm kind of not feeling great.
That's something. Is going to be more valuable in 10 years probably than it is for me right now. And it's something that doing this job pushes you to have to learn how to do because you, you'll probably be [00:40:00] surprised by this, but I'm definitely a natural introvert. Like I would rather just kind of be the quiet person in the corner rather than being the person, you know, interrupting someone mingling and being like, hello, I'm coming along.
I'd like to introduce myself. I haven't come over and spoken to you all yet. Like that's not who I naturally am, but when you're Miss America, Miss America is that really, you know, forward woman, who's excited and is there to meet everyone. And oftentimes people are apprehensive to come up to you because they don't want to bother you.
And so one of the things that I've had to do in my job is then go over to people who seem like they're too timid to meet me, but I am the one who is the confident Miss America, of course. And so I'm the one that goes over and greets that person. But that's really out of my natural character. I'm not that person.
I had to learn how to do that.
Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, it's quite a talent to learn. One of my sons is quite introverted, but he tries to be the most outgoing because he knows that it's a challenge. And he really worked on that years ago. I did some speaking on a different subject and when I would do this speaking, one of the biggest mistakes I made was.
Not saying that I wanted to be put up in a hotel at night. I would stay with some of these families who I spoke to, maybe a group that I would stay with, like one of the families in the organization. And that was difficult because you need time after these things. And I'd say probably six, seven o'clock.
I needed to go back to my hotel and call my wife and gripe about something or just, you know, just like watching some stupid things on TV or something like that. But you probably had some real long days, didn't you Camille, or like having to be on from breakfast till like midnight. I mean, that would be really hard to be smiling that long.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: It's very hard. I struggled with my stamina more than anything, partly because of your
Mike Koelzer, Host: condition. Right?
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Absolutely. And I get really tired and kind of brain fog when. Exhausted. And so, especially on those long days, I have to take extra good care of myself. And even if I just have 20 minutes to, you know, sit and, you know, Lay back in my hair and makeup and just, you know, close my eyes for 20 minutes, um, that, that can be really valuable, but it is really important for people who are in kind of that forward facing kind of speaking entertainment kind of positions, to be able to have time to just decompress one of the biggest things.
And this entire other conversation is how social media has kind of disturbed that because when you come back into your space and you're finally getting a chance to decompress, that's the time when you pick up your phone and you log on to your social media. And oftentimes as someone like a Miss America, it's the time that you're going to finally share those pictures that you've taken all day long and get them in the right directions and be writing captions and doing all this.
And everyone wants to know what you did today. I mean, my family wants to know what I did today. My friends want to know, and then I'm, I'm spending all of my downtime recounting what I've done today, and you haven't had any time for yourself. And so I definitely had to make sure of that. In the times that I did have downtime, you know, if I had to do something, sometimes I had to send pictures to an organization to post because that's part of my job.
And then the phone went down and I'm like, I need a minute. Like I just need to not look at anything for a minute. And that's really important because that's something that 10 or 15 years ago, all of us didn't really deal with in the same way. I didn't deal with it. And now it's text messages and Facebook messages and Instagram messages and Instagram notifications and posting things and all of these different pieces.
And, you know, I'm not even what I would consider to be like a large social media influencer. I have a great following of people that follow what I do, but that's not what I do full time. And so I just post things when I remember to sometimes. And could I do a better job about that? Sure. But I'm kind of glad that I'm not so locked up.
Mike Koelzer, Host: My dad. Because he went before me in the business and you know, back then he wasn't Mr. America. Like I was, but back then there was no fax machine. There was a phone, but he would get mail like at one o'clock in the afternoon when the mail came and you'd look at it. And that was your input for the day. I mean, how beautiful would that be?
Right
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: now, I get like 7,000 emails in a day. And then I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't have time to answer them all. And I wish I just got snail mail.
Mike Koelzer, Host: Now, Camille, you
got to have an assistant, right?
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: No,
Mike Koelzer, Host: Come on.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I
have a lab assistant, which is my puppy because she's allowed,
Mike Koelzer, Host: I saw your lab on social media. I've got a lab too.
You have a beautiful black
lab. Thank you. She's a lab pit. She's really more of a pit bull than a lab. I was just
going to say, she looked a little pit
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: bullish too. She's mostly Pitbull. Well, they said she was a lab mix, but it didn't [00:45:00] matter. She has a lab in her, but she's more of a Pitbull, but she's a beautiful little girl.
She's my assistant. She's my only assistant. And I'm her assistant.
Mike Koelzer, Host: As you start doing all these things across the country, though, they must give you an agenda. Right. You're going here, here
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: and here. So let me, let me clarify. So when I was working full-time as Miss America, there's a staff, right? So there's someone that does my schedule.
There's someone that travels with me. And so when I'm full-time Miss America, I absolutely have assistants that are helping me. But now as Camille in May of 2021, I am my own person.
Mike Koelzer, Host: You're still raining. But as we talked about earlier, most of your stuff is done
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: as Miss America. You absolutely have many people that are helping you.
Um, but now I've transitioned out of that full-time role. And I do things kind of as events pop up, or, you know, I'm fulfilling events that got rescheduled from last year. And when I am working as Miss America, in those moments, I do have those people that helped me. Um, but right now it's just me managing kind of my own events and things that I'm doing in my own
Mike Koelzer, Host: time.
It's odd because it's still raining. You don't have that. It's a different position this year.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: But it's, it's just a product of, COVID being a very strange experience that we've never, I mean, as an organization has never had to deal with. Um, and it's the way that I'm then able to kind of do what I need to do.
And so I'm grateful for the arrangement, no complaints. Um, but it's, and it's honestly given me the opportunity to learn how to do a lot of these things for myself, take on it. I've learned how to run QuickBooks now for myself. So it's one of those things that, you know, I am kind of a small business owner.
I have my own LLC. I'm learning how to, uh, negotiate my own prices, which is sometimes kind of scary as a person to like to put a value on yourself and then tell the client what you think you're worth in terms of a dollar amount. Give
Mike Koelzer, Host: me an example of that. Camille, what products in quotes do you offer yourself?
Are you a speaker? Are you a consultant? What, what kind of thing? Selling you're selling yourself that than a bed. What kinds of things are you hiring yourself out for? I'm not sure how to put that, but
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: you know what I mean? I do mostly speaking engagements at this time, virtually and in person and those range from, you know, corporate speaking engagements to sometimes schools that are just interested in having me come and speak to their kids.
I'm doing science demonstrations with kids, mostly virtually because it's too expensive to get the insurance, to do it in person yay business. And making sure that I'm protecting myself from a liability perspective, of course is important, but I will potentially try. For a court, like let's say a nonprofit just brought me down to the state of Louisiana to work with their nonprofit, travel around, to bring notoriety to their nonprofit.
And I did a speaking engagement for them. That was one of the things I did. I went to a super bowl event where I was with a, uh, recovery based organization that put on sober events for those who were maybe in recovery. Sometimes I bring media to the event because people are able to see that Miss America, 2020, which I will forever be, is coming to that event.
And I'll do the interviews for them. I'll do social media promotion, but then on the other side, I will also quite literally sell myself as a social media promoter in some ways. And that's more of the traditional influencer type work that we see happening you'll sell for your post and things like that.
Yes, for certain things. Um, I'm never going to like trying to sell tiny tea to people on Instagram, but if someone asks me to promote something that is aligned with what I'm interested in, happy to do it. So I, for example, made a video for a recovery business association out of Wisconsin who wanted to share information about how they're supporting people in recovery, um, was a wonderful opportunity for me to do something like that.
And, you know, there's, I'm on an advisory board of a company now that's creating products to help safely store medication. Um, I'm working with an app. That's helping to provide information for people to safely take their medications and gives you reminders. So there's all these different products that I'm then collaborating with.
And that's kind of the way that. You know, creating my product to be something different. Now I ain't no
Mike Koelzer, Host: genius, but it seems like you need a personal assistant for that stuff. It seems like everything you mentioned there would take at least like a page contract or something
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: signed or say that my parents are really helping me as my assistance because they do have the business experience.
And so they've supported me through this, so I'm not doing it
Mike Koelzer, Host: alone. They'll feel some of that stuff. And Camille, we check this out and we think it's good and sign this and then go to this right.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Creating a lot of my own contracts now. And so, um, I have a great legal team that I've helped work, you know, and that I've worked with for the last year to help navigate those kinds of things.
But it's really given me a perspective of what it takes to run an organization, right? So you have legal, you have [00:50:00] regulatory, you have the talent, you have communications, you have all of these different things, marketing and things like that. Really didn't always have the exposure to, and now I do all of those jobs or at least all of them to a certain extent.
Um, and then I do have people that do help me, but I don't have a traditional kind of assistant. And sometimes I'm flooded with emails and it takes me a long time to respond to people. And I feel so bad. Um, but you know, you have to get to a certain point of revenue to be able to afford an assistant. And we're not there yet.
We have to, we have to get there. The volume has to be there and that's, you know, that's the balance, right? You want to grow your organization, but then you have to have the capital to be able to pay for more employees.
Mike Koelzer, Host: This is no news to you with Fiverr and all these things or people, I guess you have to trust them though.
Right.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I might be a control freak. It could be part of my problem. There are certain things that I know that I can do well. And then there's things that I know that they don't do as well. And I know when I need to ask for people to help. And so like, for example, My mom, God bless her writes so well, I can write really dry, informative things because I'm like, this is what happened and this is what's going to happen next.
And I can communicate dry. But if I'm looking for creative writing, if I need to put content on my website or create something that is, you know, really engaging in terms of writing all, write it. And I'm like, you need to look at this, please help me make this pretty. And so I know who in my life that I can ask, like having an advisor in my pharmaceutical world right in my career life. I say, I'm interested in joining this advisory board of this pharmaceutical based company with this product.
I want you to look at this. Can you look at this contract for me and see if this makes sense? I've never been on an advisory board before and you have, and so I have those people. Knowing what you know, and then knowing what you don't know is really important. Now I know that when I go to an event and I'm the keynote speaker, I know that I can put together a presentation and walk in there and give an engaging keynote speaker speech for an hour.
I don't need somebody to write that for me anymore. And I had people that wrote speeches for me in the beginning, but now I've kind of started to learn the stories and the things that I've talked about a hundred times and I've made them my own now. And now I am, you know, that's the product that I offer.
Um, but I think the moral of this entire story is no. The advisors in your life that help you get to where you are and knowing when you need to ask
Mike Koelzer, Host: them, because there's a lot of things that an efficiency expert might say, you shouldn't have this doing it. But some of that stuff, it's just like, yeah, I like doing this.
I'm not a robot. There's some stuff I just like to do.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Still. I'm learning how to do it. Efficiency is definitely something I can improve on because I am trying to do more things myself that I
Mike Koelzer, Host: probably should have. I'm not buying that Camille look, I said, you're a master marker. You had this thing planned from, oh my gosh, two, three years ago.
And so I'm not going to just agree quickly. I
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: wish I could take credit for that, but it's. When you get to a certain point and you realize that like, what you're doing is working and then you just, you know, throw it in. And you're like, I'm embracing that with this thing that I just kind of like tried to work.
It's like, when you accidentally create a pro, I'm telling you, I, you can
Mike Koelzer, Host: Think of it, I'm not buying it. I mean, it might've been a skill you didn't know you had,
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: But you know what? I gotta tell you a funny thing to do. You want to know that people thought that I hired a PR agency before I went to Miss America to scheme all of these things together.
Like that was like a rumor that went around for a while and people still think that, well, I started it. Oh my gosh. It was honestly a little frustrating for me because I'm like, I didn't like the interest, like I created the interests. No,
Mike Koelzer, Host: I'm Joe, of course he didn't buy it. I think that had to come as a child from your parents being business owners.
I mean, that's not a coincidence that your parents were business owners. I mean, it's really something because here's the. Maybe you didn't care that much about it. You don't want to act like it was no big deal, but, but you had arguably, you know, half those women, it was their life goal. And you raised up through them and that came from all of your talents and skills and all that.
And dare I say beauty, even though it's not a beauty pageant anymore, but you raised through that with your skills of marketing and knowing the market going up through there. When does pharmacy school start back
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: up in August and mid August, I will head back. It's not going to happen. Oh, it's going to happen,
Mike Koelzer, Host: mark.
My word. I'll be your advisor right now. I just don't see it talking about marketing. You're Miss America of the 2020s. See, here's the thing. If you were 2019, You would already be old-school just because people are thinking, oh, it's 20 now. [00:55:00] It's the last decade. It's got one before the last digit. So, I mean, you're like the Miss America of the 2020s.
Now you don't have to say it was just 20 and 2021. You don't have to say how many there were, but you're a Miss America of the 2020s. And so as you're sitting there this fall in pharmacy school, and you're going to get these offers coming, you know, of going to speak somewhere because Miss America is not till December.
So why would you be sitting in class when you could be speaking somewhere or something? Is that enough? I mean, I know you talked about your goal and stuff, but that goal is going to be there a year from now or two years from now. Here's
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: the thing we've learned how to do a lot of things virtually now.
So I'm still doing a lot of virtual speaking engagements. So if there's certain things that I can do virtually while I'm in school, I'm open to that. Traveling during school is what scares me, because I don't think that I can put, give that much time up and I can't miss class, but like, if there's something that I can do virtually on the computer, I'm still open to a lot of those opportunities, but I'm, that's kind of like the thing that I've been really set on is that I don't want to allow all of these really cool opportunities to distract me from my school, because I'm telling you, I'm going to walk across that stage in 20, 24.
And then I'm going to have all of these opportunities. I'm still trying to create the momentum so that they will still be there in three years.
Mike Koelzer, Host: I gotcha. There's nothing wrong walking across the stage in 2026. So, oh
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: my goodness. I'll be like over 30 at that point, I would like to, um, graduate before I'm 30.
That would be lovely. I'd like to buy a house at some point and be a real adult. And so that's also something that drives me to want to finally finish my school at some point.
Mike Koelzer, Host: That's a good goal. I see what you're saying. So you're saying that when you walk across the stage in 20, 25 or 2024, at that point being Miss America, 20, 20 never goes away.
It's still there. Right? And on top of that, you have your doctoral degree. That'll do whatever you haven't lost anything except the current status, but that's going to go away anyways in five months or something like that,
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: right? Yeah. I'm trying to keep the momentum so that, you know, I get to say all of these things that I have done, but then supplement that with the doctoral degree.
That makes sense. And I also think I would feel a little bit like a fraud if I didn't finish my education, because it's been something that's been such a, a big piece of it's what I sold myself on was that I'm a pharmacy student and that this is what's important to me. And I would really feel disingenuous if I didn't finish my education. To be honest, I'm stubborn.
Like if I say I'm going to do that, and I really wanted to, I gloves the whole point of what I started with. Yeah. That if I didn't finish, I would feel like I wasn't staying true to who I really am. Yeah. That
Mike Koelzer, Host: makes sense. You had mentioned supply and demand. There's some supply and demand in who you are then, right?
There's not many supplies. Well, there's Miss America winners, but they're not many Miss America, and they're not many doctoral Miss America's that kind of thing.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I was looking at what people were looking for from a miss America or a miss Virginia. What was really the demand for the demand I realized was to talk about the opioid epidemic.
Number one, people were really interested in talking about substance use disorder and having someone come and speak about that. So I got a ton of events from that type of topic. And then in addition, people wanted to have a woman scientist come and speak to their group for their little girls and for their little boys.
Right. And so I looked at these two things. Really, those were the things I led with. It wasn't even like I did some kind of market analysis to be like, oh, I would like to focus on the opioid epidemic because I'm going to get more events from that. Yeah. But I was kind of coming up with these, you know, these are the things that are important to me, drug safety and abuse prevention and stem, these, and these things took off like a hundred miles an hour.
And I was so busy that I was like, oh my goodness. But I think that that was what was, so
Mike Koelzer, Host: when. They may have been important because you already knew that there was the demand there. In other words, you knew that you weren't probably going to lead with, you know, whatever makeup, you know, or how to do something on Instagram or something, you know, they are important of course, but also you knew they were important because they weren't being hit.
That was that marketing mind of yours.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Yeah. Yes. And I do think that it was especially with the women in the stem piece. We hear a lot about women in stem, right? It's like women in stem women stems. But if you don't have a lot of really great females, like public figures, right. We think of Bill Nye.
Yeah. We think of Steve Spangler. Who's the guy that does all the science on Ellen degeneres, a show. He's great. He has a whole TV show. I've worked with him, but it's a lot of work. There's not a lot of women that do this, like science [01:00:00] education, entertainment thing. The real thing is that's not even accurate anymore.
There's plenty of women who wear heels in the lab. Hey, as long as they're close toed shoes, you can wear whatever you want. If you're a little girl and you're thinking about being a woman in a stem career, and that's what you think. And in reality, that's not true. Um, that's one of the cool things that I get to do is that you don't have to pick and you know, it's funny, I do talk about makeup because a lot of little girls have that interest in makeup and nail Polish and all those things.
And I'm like, you could be a cosmetic chemist girlfriend, if you want to go work for L'Oreal. For sure. One of the things that I do is talk about how science is all around us, in everything that we do. If you like playing video games, you could be, you know, a computer scientist and work on developing new video games and coding those.
And, you know, working for that kind of a company, you work for a cosmetic company, you've worked for a food company. Like there are so many stem careers that are unique and really fun ones. Um, and that's the cool thing I get to do, but not a lot of people were doing that. And I think that the other thing for me is.
Both with stem and with drug safety and abuse prevention. I wanted the topics that I focused on to relate to everyone, because if you're going out in your miss America or miss Virginia, you are talking to so many different groups, right? And you want to be relevant to whatever group that you come into.
And sometimes if you pick something too specific, um, it's not always going to be relevant to the group that you're in, but like, Have you ever met anyone who's not ever taken a medication in their life or potentially in this time that a lot of people know people that are struggling with substance use disorders, or maybe someone that's interested in the stem field, um, in some way or another, or maybe has a family member who is interested.
I feel like a lot of what I talk about tends to be relevant to a lot of the groups that I do go to. And so then it just becomes a little bit easier to say, you know, Hey, I'm going to come to your event and talk about whatever topic that is important to whatever you're doing. And it's going to somehow relate to what I do, which has made my job a lot easier.
Mike Koelzer, Host: You really do have a neck for marketing . It's obvious to you, but it's not obvious to everybody to say that you've got to do something that's narrow enough to be exciting, narrow enough, to be different. Yeah. Broad enough to be relevant. Not everybody picks up on that.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Tell you also the stem piece. I am so grateful that I chose that.
And that was what I dealt with during the pandemic, because so many classrooms did, I do demonstrations with virtually because teachers were looking for stem enrichment for their students when they weren't in the classroom. And I was looking for ways to do those things from home. And so I'm creating videos.
I did an entire TV series with PBS here in central Virginia. I made a show called cooking up science with Miss America, from my kitchen. And I was able to continue to do that outreach when parents and teachers were looking for it the most. That became another great way to continue that it was harder to do the outreach on medication safety and abuse prevention from home, which was frustrating because I saw.
The overdose numbers are starting to rise. And I couldn't do a lot about it. And, uh, that was a difficult thing to be able to adapt, but the stem piece was easy. And then, you know, we talk about technology. The technology piece of stem is what allows us to do it. So I got to talk a lot with students about that.
And I felt really lucky that I got to be the Miss America. Who was the scientist during a pandemic? It seemed, it seemed like it worked out.
Mike Koelzer, Host: Are there any rules about the miss American name, like five years from now forever. You can say Miss America, right? I mean, you can't say you're the miss America, but
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I am always miss America 2020.
You have to say that
Mike Koelzer, Host: 2020.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I sure do. And I get to say that pretty much forever, but I have to be cautious of how I represent myself with just Miss America. But if
Mike Koelzer, Host: You say 20, 20 years, okay. What are you?
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: 25 ish. I am 25. I'll be 26 next
Mike Koelzer, Host: month. What are you gonna do when you're 50? I know it's a long way out, but you've got these long-term goals.
I'm not going to give you a five-year or a tenure cliche question 50.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I'm going to do it tomorrow.
Mike Koelzer, Host: Take me through a week when you're
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: 50. I mean, I hope I have like a hundred dogs. Are you going to
Mike Koelzer, Host: be a president of some pharmacy company or what? I
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I mean, I haven't really thought about that. I think that I would like to at least be in some form of executive leadership in a pharmaceutical company at that point.
Um, I guess at 50 50,
Mike Koelzer, Host: You forced me to go for that five or 10. We would get all the current stuff. And you're the one that had these long-term goals. So this is your problem. I'm asking
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: this, I think that I owe executive leadership. I'd like to be an executive in a pharmaceutical company. I don't know.
What does that mean executive leader? I think in my ideal world, I'd like to work in a company and [01:05:00] work my way up, like to the point where. Like potentially could run like a small business unit or be able to head a product line or something like that. Where I am in a position where I don't even know it's hard for me to even like, even picture that because there's so many different options, but in a job where I'm really able to make an impact and be able to lead a group of people at that point and help make those decisions instead of just being like a floating head in a cubicle.
Mike Koelzer, Host: All right. So C E O of one of the top pharmacy companies. Why not?
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I, I mean, that could be true.
Mike Koelzer, Host: I mean, you're miss America for Pete's sake. Y you
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: might give me too much credit here. I have to. I'm one of them. Here's the thing I'm going to go back for a second while you're the master marketer. I'm a believer that I am put in the right places at the right time, kind of like this homeless America experience.
So I am going to take it. Whatever position I get. When I finally do get to take my first career position, I'm going to look for those opportunities where I feel like I'm in the right place and allow that all to happen. Because if I focus too much on love, all of those people have those long-term goals, but I think that sometimes if you don't achieve exactly what you said you wanted to achieve, then oftentimes you feel.
You haven't reached that you're not successful when in reality, you've gotten to do a lot of really cool things.
Mike Koelzer, Host: You don't want to be disappointed. You're not missing America. If you're miss Virginia,
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: like you get to do, if you focus on, oh, this thing that you really, really want to do, and then you don't recognize all of the other cool things that you've got to do.
Maybe if you haven't gotten to that ultimate goal that you said you wanted to do.
Mike Koelzer, Host: All right, Camille. But remember the question is not, like I said, what's your goal, right? I'm just saying, where do you picture yourself? When you're 50, 50 is not that old. I thought 50 was old, but it comes up fast. The difficult
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: part for me is because I have so many opportunities and it's really me wanting to get the doctoral education so that I have more opportunities available to me.
That's
Mike Koelzer, Host: it. You don't want to narrow yourself
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: down? I don't know if I will take a traditional path, like what I say I'm going to do, or if I will. You know, say, heck, I'm going to do my own product line and I'm going to focus on women in science and I'm going to be the CEO of my own company. It's going to be up to me at insight four or five years where that goes.
But at 50, I would like to have a small barn with a bunch of horses and farm animals and a bunch of dogs and whatever career path allows me to have money to do that is the career path that I want. Now that's a smart answer. So there you go. That's my
Mike Koelzer, Host: answer. I've learned that as I've gotten wiser and more, maybe a tad older, it's fun to have goals that you can pretty much hit, whether you're really successful in business or not.
And they're not dependent on someone else's. View of you, you know, there's intrinsic value, whether it be playing the piano or having dogs on a farm, you know, different things like that. It's like, you don't have to get permission for that. You don't have to have someone appoint you as that, those kinds of things.
Those are the best ones. I
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I think you have to be in control of that yourself. If
Mike Koelzer, Host: you're not waiting for someone
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: else, I love the profession of pharmacy. I love pharmaceuticals because of what they can offer people and the science behind them. But the other benefit of that type of a career path is the ability for financial stability and independence long-term.
Um, and so whatever allows me to pay for all of the animals I'd like to have is great. But then I think that I will finally find success somewhere in an organization. In a position that's right. For me in the skills that I have. And so I'm not too focused on where I land as long as it's a place that I feel like I'm happy and then I can do what I want in my life.
The
Mike Koelzer, Host: The beauty of what you're doing is, and that's a good lesson for everybody, is to leave the options open. You know. Yeah, my wife and I, we talked about whenever I retire, we don't know what the hell we're going to do. I've owned the business forever now, and I've never even had, you know, three days off in my head to just relax.
I might get my first three days off after retirement and then have to run a nonprofit, something or other, I might go crazy. We don't know what we're going to do. The goal though, is to have a lot of options. So when the time comes, you can wear fancy shoes. I
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: I think that my real goal is just being able to do what I want because I want to do it.
And not just feeling like I have to take a job because I'm just trying to survive. And so at 50, I hope whatever job that I'm working in is something that I'm working in because I'm really passionate about it. And that I love the position that I meant. That's important to me. I think you're going to be okay,
Mike Koelzer, Host: Camille.
I hope so. Thanks. I'm just predicting that. I think you are. Sarah hopes so. Let me know how it turns out. [01:10:00] All right, Camille, such a pleasure. Thanks for your time. And boy, congratulations and really exciting stuff.
Camille Schrier, PharmD Student: Take care.
