“I just thought there has to be a better way,” said Eiferman.

In his seventies, Eiferman made the decision to embark on an online MBA program at the UofL College of Business to link his 40-year career in ophthalmology with his longtime research interest in developing a new medication delivery system.

“I’ve always been very interested in the business aspects of things, and we always had these research ideas that we’d never had the chance to bring to fruition, so I thought maybe we could put two birds together in one,” he said.

From his decades of experience with eye ailments, Eiferman recognized that a sustained delivery system was needed. “It’s particularly important in ophthalmology, because for example, if you have glaucoma, you have to take drops once or twice a day for the rest of your life, and compliance can be the biggest problem.”

Eiferman connected with a PhD chemist and the two investigated a long-acting sustained release way to deliver medication.

“We discovered a way to put drugs in a wafer that slowly dissolves over two-to-three months, so no drops,” said Eiferman. “It’s a totally new concept. We conducted tests on rabbits and sure enough, it worked beautifully.”

With the help of College of Business faculty, he submitted a proposal and won the top prize of $25,000 in a “Shark Tank” style contest sponsored by the American Academy of Ophthalmology in November 2022. That success led him to present at another contest in April 2023 at Yale University, and again he won the top prize, this time $265,000.  

Eiferman said that the UofL MBA faculty were incredibly receptive and supportive, teaching him a novel approach for his presentation to the Yale panel.

“This was different than any paper or lecture I’ve ever given,” he said. “Five slides and five minutes. I was fixated on the science and the chemistry, but they told me the panelists would want to know about  the market and how to make money from this idea,” he said. “They were 100 percent correct.”

With the patent and his newly formed company, Sustained Drug Delivery, Eiferman plans to use the prize money to fund a study at Michigan State involving beagles that have congenital glaucoma since the FDA requires two species studies, rabbits and dogs in this case. The experiments need to demonstrate the wafers are equivalent in efficacy to the traditional drops.

“We believe it will work and we can then ask for permission to test in humans and evaluate a certain number of people for a certain length of time,” he said. Once Eiferman completes that hurdle, the drug delivery system could be marketed as a device and not a drug, which can reduce the time between testing and approval.

Eiferman said he believes it could be a multi-million-dollar idea because of the technology’s broad applicability.

“In dentistry, for example, they could pack a socket following a tooth extraction or put it in sutures,” explained Eiferman. The other huge market is veterinary medicine to address a severe eye ailment that can make horses go blind.

In May 2023, Eiferman got to wear his green hood and walk at the university’s online MBA graduation ceremony.

“I never expected to be getting an MBA or starting a company in my 70s, but I wanted to prove I could still go to school and learn.”

Growing up, Blocker loved to learn. She placed a high priority on education and academia, so when the Louisville native graduated from Seneca High School in 2000, as a surprise to many, she chose to join the United States Marine Corps. While at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Blocker became an Honor Graduate – a distinction awarded to the graduate who best exemplifies what it means to be a marine – while gaining knowledge of the world and learning from those with different lived experiences.

“I felt like I needed to get out of my bubble of Louisville to appreciate the world and learn about different people and cultures,” Blocker said. “I stayed stateside, but I met a lot of diverse, interesting people and learned a lot of life lessons from them.”

After spending more than two years in the Marine Corps, Blocker became a mom in 2004. Shortly after her son, Cameron, was born, he was diagnosed with autism and epilepsy, which inspired her to begin advocating for children and adults with autism and disabilities.

Blocker took on her next journey with a 12-year career with the United States Postal Service as a sales, service and distribution clerk. During that time, she married her husband, Shane, and became a stepmother to her Shanna and Raven.

While working for USPS, as the true lifelong learner she is, Blocker got to know and learn from people in the diverse communities she served.

Throughout the years, the goal of ultimately getting a college education remained in her mind. Blocker took classes here and there, sprinkling them in where she could, but it wasn’t until she got a job as a Program Assistant for Academic Services at UofL’s Thorntons Academic Center of Excellence that she really made it a top priority.

“I didn’t appreciate my journey at the time,” Blocker said. “I was going to work for a university and I didn’t have my degree but once I got [to UofL] I knew that this was where I was called to be.”

Blocker realized that she had the opportunity to take six credit hours per semester at no cost as a UofL employee, so in January of 2020, she set out to obtain her degree. She started building upon the courses she’d sporadically taken over the years to work toward a bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership. Full of ambition and a realization that she could meet her self-imposed deadline of earning a degree before 40, Blocker doubled and even tripled up on her course load.

With a busy schedule and lofty goals, online learning was just what the working mom needed.

“I’m an online learner all day long,” Blocker said. “I can rewind and hit pause when I need to take care of something else. I can work on it when my son is in therapy and I also feel like I retain so much more seeing things written down.”

In addition to her role as a program assistant, Blocker serves as a supervisor for the federal work study program, serves on the Strategically Organizing Against Racism (SOAR) committee, and serves as an advisor for international student athletes in the Louisville International Family Enrichment (LIFE) program.

“I want to show people that leadership can come from any level,” Blocker said. “It doesn’t matter if [we’re] in an entry-level job, we can make a change. If you help one person, that one person can help five people, and then 10 people.”

Though Blocker’s path to graduation has not been traditional, she wouldn’t have it any other way. The experiences and knowledge she gained from her time in the Marine Corps and with USPS gave her tools that she said she wouldn’t have had right out of high school.

Just 16 months after beginning her coursework, Blocker is set to become a first-generation graduate as a member of the Dean’s List.

“I have a very supportive family,” Blocker said. “My son thinks it’s so cool that mom goes to school and I feel like he gets inspiration seeing me do it.” 

Following graduation, Blocker hopes to pursue a master’s degree in Higher ����ֱ�� Administration. After that, her biggest goal is to apply her laundry list of passions – of which, there’s a common theme – empowering others.

“Passion fuels my purpose,” Blocker said. “I want to empower other people to be the best they can be – underrepresented communities, people with autism and disabilities and marginalized societies. If you listen, you learn so much. Even if [we’re] different, we can all grow together.”

Joseph Hans, a student in the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development, has plenty of first-hand experience with those challenges.

“I attended UofL for two semesters straight out of high school in the mid-1980s. The less said about that time, the better,” said Hans.

It’s a story many students know well — the temporary break made permanent as life gets in the way.

And life did get in the way. Hans got married, started a family, learned new skills on the job and took UofL classes on and off for many years.

It was a struggle. But he never gave up.

A turning point came in 2011 when Hans finished his general education requirements and turned to CEHD’s Matt Bergman for help on what to do next.

Bergman told him about CEHD’s organizational leadership and learning degree, which provides college credit for workplace experience. Hans was elated to learn that he could receive up to 45 hours towards his degree.

“I liked the overall approach. The professors were real-world practitioners, the students were all adult learners and the classes used off-campus facilities and after-work hours,” said Hans.

Now, Hans is on course to graduate cum laude in August at the age of 51. He is employed by Humana, where he says his managers have been more than willing to accommodate his busy schedule.

Hans credits his perseverance not only to his personal drive, but also to those who encouraged him.

“The standout professors, in my experience, in the program include Cathy Avdevich, Matt Bergman, Ray Klein, and Erin Mires. Amber Roberts, currently the program advisor, was also a huge help in getting me back in this past fall.”

After he earns his degree, Hans hopes to obtain a full-time marketing position with Humana.

The award comes despite Rummage being limited to a 20-hour work week due to being a full-time student.

Rummage has been with REACH as a math tutor since August 2016. He has achieved the status of Master Tutor, which is a level III certification through the College Reading and Learning Association. In order to teach GEN 103/104, Rummage accepted a UTA position with REACH – the first of its kind. Typically, only GSAs and program coordinators teach the course.

The move helped him on both a personal and a professional level.

“Working as a math tutor and instructor is my way of giving back. In the past, I wasn’t so strong in mathematics. As a non-traditional student at JCTC, I had instructors who invested in me, and math became alive to me,” Rummage said.

Within two semesters at JCTC, he began working as a tutor in the math lab. He then joined REACH upon transferring to UofL and worked his way through level I and II certification while working in the GEN 103/104 program. That’s when he decided to apply to be a Master Tutor.

“During this process, I became interested in a potential future as a REACH GSA. I began to glean as much knowledge as I could regarding this role in advance and had some amazing mentors during the process,” he said.

Rummage’s favorite part of the job is working with his students, as well as the REACH team.

“It’s so rewarding to see a tutee grasp a concept and totally take ownership of the math problem that mere minutes ago was giving them a headache,” he said. “I’m constantly in awe of our true team atmosphere here at the University. Our REACH team always pulls together in a united front to help students succeed, and that’s why we’re here.”

The Peer Tutor of the Year Award is awarded to one student tutor per year by the Association for the Tutoring Profession. Rummage was nominated by the REACH leadership staff.

“Being nominated was a tremendous honor in itself. I was extremely surprised when I found out that I was chosen from a pool of nominees nationwide,” he said.

Rummage plans to graduate in December 2018 and then intends to apply for the 13-month MBA program offered by the UofL College of Business. He also plans to apply to a GSA role with REACH so he can continue to teach GEN 103/104 while pursuing a post-graduate degree.  

From there, his goal is to enter the public accounting fields and eventually obtain CPA certification.

Working to support herself, the first-generation graduate didn’t start college until she was 20. Being a single mother to three children added challenges – but also motivation.

“I was uneducated in the resources available to me, and I underestimated my ability to manage studies and work simultaneously,” Hale said. “After succeeding for a year as a single mom working full time, I gained the confidence to pursue my goal once again. I realized that if I kept waiting for the right time, that time would never come. I decided the best thing for me to do for myself and my family was apply for medical school.”

Evan Meiman took a detour on his road to a career in medicine to spend time helping people in need. After graduating from college in 2015, he joined , serving at the Rhode Island Free Clinic in Providence as a volunteer coordinator for a full-service medical home for uninsured patients.

“When you work for a not-for-profit you wear many hats. I was in charge of the volunteer staff – doctors, interpreters, medical recorders, assistants, nurses,” Meiman said. “I coordinated medical recorders, Spanish interpreters and the medical assistants. It was close to 300 people.”

After a year with AmeriCorps, Meiman worked enrolling patients for clinical trials and research studies at Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital, where he learned valuable lessons about working with people in stressful situations.

“Some would laugh at you and kick you out. Others would sit and talk with you all day long. It was great interacting with people seeing a different side of medicine,” he said. “The two years I was out in the communities with sick and healthy people confirmed it’s exactly what I want to do. It showed me that people aren’t just cells that process sugars, they are human beings that have stories and lives.”

This Sunday, Meiman, Hale and 159 other students will be welcomed as first-year students in the University of Louisville School of Medicine at the school’s White Coat Ceremony.

In the ceremony, members of the class of 2021 receive a white coat, a gift of the Greater Louisville Medical Society, and a stethoscope, provided by an alumnus of the school through . The future physicians then recite the , promising to serve humanity and honor the traditions of the medical profession.

“It’s one thing to say you want to go to medical school, but to be given the tools to do it, I am honored. And it is exciting to be on the brink of it,” Meiman said.

Becoming a physician is a long process. Four years of medical school are followed by three or more years of residency training in a medical specialty. Meiman and Hale both have experience in planning for the long run. In his spare time, Meiman is a marathon runner.

“What I like about marathons is it’s so much more about what you put into it before the race. And it’s a great meditation and stress reliever.”

Hale hopes to have a positive impact on as many lives as possible.

“While we all hope to change the world, I will be fulfilled in the ability to change individual lives for the better, giving families more time together and providing a better quality of life.”