KINGSTON, R.I. — Oct. 8, 2026 — After winning preliminary competitions, placing them among the top eight teams in the country, three University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy students are headed to Salt Lake City, Utah, aiming to become the latest URI students to win a major national pharmacy skills competition.
Kayla Aquilante, Emma Brouillette, and J.T. Berard-Moore will represent the college at the national 2026 Clinical Pharmacy Challenge hosted by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy on Oct. 17 after beating out more than 100 teams in the preliminary rounds. They are hoping to join ranks of alumni Alex Chernov, Aidan Fischer and Andrew Webb, who won the competition in 2018. URI College of Pharmacy students also currently hold national championships in ACCP’s Clinical Research Challenge, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ Clinical Skills Competition.
Aquilante, of Johnston, Rhode Island; Brouillette, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island; and Berard-Moore, of Santa Cruz, California, will compete against the remaining seven teams through three rounds in the “quiz-bowl” type competition—trivia/lightning round, clinical case studies, and a “Jeopardy!-style” contest. The competition began in September with four online preliminary rounds. All eligible teams competed in the first round, and the field was progressively narrowed to the top 64, 32, 16, and ultimately the top eight teams who advance to the live quarterfinals in Salt Lake City.
“Competing in the Clinical Pharmacy Challenge has been a really exciting way to put everything we’ve learned in pharmacy school to the test,” Aquilante said. “It has also been a great opportunity to start reviewing material we’ll need for the NAPLEX well before graduation. This is my second year competing, so it has been especially rewarding to see how much I’ve grown since last year and even across the four rounds of this year’s competition. Making it to the top eight nationally has made that experience even more meaningful, and I’m excited to represent URI with my teammates in Salt Lake City.”
To prepare, the trio is taking several practice tests to identify strengths and potential areas in need of more study. They divided up their research to focus on their areas of expertise, studying reams of material, including North American Pharmacist Licensure Examinations (NAPLEX), previous lecture slides, board certification textbooks, and more.
All three are putting their personal experience to good use in preparing. Brouillette and Aquilante’s extensive work experiences at pharmacies and hospitals have helped fill in real-life gaps in the study material. Berard-Moore—who was also on the championship clinical research team last year—is using his competition experience to help prepare for the questions they are likely to face and making about 1,200 corresponding flashcards to quiz himself and his teammates. The team is also meeting with Webb and Fischer to learn from their 2018 experience.
“We are incredibly grateful and excited to represent URI and how strong a program it is on a national level,” Berard-Moore said. “Achieving top eight out of an original pool of 100 is already so exciting. I remember Kayla and myself shaking, answering each question during the fourth round when we realized we were on our way to Salt Lake City. No matter what happens it is so great to know how well supported we are by the College of Pharmacy and all the incredible people that make it happen.”