Everyday Extraordinary: Dacorsha Sutton

Growing up, I was an excellent student. I earned top grades, was super involved in extracurricular activities, and held several leadership positions. In fact, I was the first and only youth at my church to be a  Eucharistic minister. So, when I became pregnant at sixteen, it was a really big deal. 

Looking back, it was a difficult time. Because the school I attended was a Catholic high school, I was kicked off all the leadership positions I held, and I was barred from participating in a lot of the activities at school or in my town. 

I had my daughter the summer after my junior year. My senior year, I had over a 4.0 GPA, worked part-time, and took all honors classes. I earned a full-ride scholarship to college. I refused to let what happened to me define who I am and who I was, so I made it a point to do what I had always wanted to do and didn’t let anything stop me. 

Dacorsha wears the CrossOver Bra in Runway.

In college, the level of learning was different. There was more freedom. School has never been super hard for me — I have really good photographic memory — so I thought I could take on more hours to provide more for my daughter. However, the additional hours at work got me behind in school, and my grades dropped severely. I went from graduating high school with over a 4.0 GPA to ending my first semester with a 1.7. I lost my full-ride scholarship.

At that point, I had spent the year prior balancing school and being a parent, so I didn’t blame it on my daughter — the drop in grades was on me. The transition to college had caught me off guard. I took accountability and continued going to school. I took out extra loans to pay out of pocket. I chose to study pharmacy, and got my first pharmacy job working at Rite Aid. Eventually, I was recruited to work at a hospital pharmacy. A pharmacist there recommended me to her past job in a home infusion setting, and I worked there too. I gained six or seven years of experience in all three pharmacy settings, and I loved it so much. I was confident it was what I wanted to do.

I decided to apply to pharmacy school. Even though I had worked hard to recover my grades, my GPA was still affected by that first semester of college, and it wasn’t competitive enough to get accepted. Because of this, my advisors refused to help me. The Director of Student Affairs told me I should change my major, said that I would never get accepted with my GPA, and discouraged me from applying. However, I knew in my heart pharmacy was my path.

I ended up figuring out how to apply to pharmacy school on my own, without any help from my school. It took a ton of research and trial and error, but I was dead set on making it happen. I reached out to all the pharmacists I had met along the way. I was actually working at the pharmacy when I got my acceptance letter. 

I’m currently in my final year of pharmacy school. Ironically enough, I was one of two students in our college to be elected to hold a position on our admissions committee. Now that I’ve had that experience and been on the other side, I’m much more aware of all the criteria that they look for in applicants. No two students are the same, and so many things shape you into the person you need to be for each job you apply to. If you don’t meet the requirements on paper, but you know in your heart you’re meant to be somewhere or do something, let this be your sign to put yourself up for the opportunity! You never know unless you try.

My path was certainly not linear, but the contrast makes the wins even sweeter. I went from being kicked off of everything in high school, to being granted one of the only leadership positions in my school’s admission process and being able to change the narrative for other students. I went from failing in undergrad to earning the Dean’s List in grad school. It’s such a pinch-me moment to be on the other side, and it’s such a lesson that everything can always change for the better if you put the work in.