Written by: Nayeli Montes
Nayeli Montes is pursuing a dual master’s degree in pharmacy and biomedical informatics and hopes to become a pediatric or informatics pharmacist. Montes was one of the students who helped make a video submission for her professor, Dr. Jaime Riskin, to be featured on “The Steve Harvey Show.” Montes was excited to make this video because she believed that Dr. Riskin is a kind, caring and compassionate professor who deserved the recognition.
One day, I was casually checking my email when I came across an email from Steve Harvey. I sent in a video submission a couple months prior, but I didn’t expect to hear back from them. I started reading, and I couldn’t believe what it said: “We have picked your segment to air on television next week. Would you be able to fly out next Monday and Tuesday to be on our show?” I immediately proceeded to message my other classmates in utter disbelief that this was actually occurring.
The purpose of the segment was to honor a professor who faced a medical scare during teaching but has not let it interfere with his or her teaching. Dr. Riskin is a highly admired professor at the College of Pharmacy, where she teaches pharmacotherapy and patient care management labs. There is no professor at the college for which I would be any more excited to honor than her. The worst part about this was that, although many of us would see her every day, we had to keep it a secret because we wanted to surprise her.
Before we knew it, it was time to fly out to Chicago, where the episode is recorded. My friend Ariel and I were lucky enough to be able to fly out together. We carefully planned all of the tourist spots we would pick to make sure that we would not run into her and ruin the surprise. That night, we got the script sent to us from the producer, and that’s when it all became real. Reading how much of an impact she has had on each one of our lives made this moment all the more special. However, that didn’t seem to help with the fact that our nerves were bouncing off the walls.
Recording day came. Upon arrival to the studio, staff swiftly sent us into our green room and told us that we were not allowed to leave the room unless someone escorted us, in order to prevent Dr. Riskin from seeing us in the halls. They sent us to do our hair and makeup, which was an experience in itself, and then we had to rehearse our lines a couple of times so that we wouldn’t be nervous. During one of those rehearsals, we got a text message from Dr. Riskin’s husband saying, “Is that you girls laughing?” We were in disbelief that we had managed to keep everything a secret for so long and something as simple as our giggling almost gave it away. Thankfully, the surprise was still on.
We walked on stage, and this was where we met Steve Harvey. He was an extremely nice guy. He assured us not to be nervous, that we were going to do alright, and that everything was going to run smoothly. The cameras started to roll, and we each said our respective parts. We then hid behind a wall in order to get ready for our reveal. Dr. Riskin came out and did her interview, and then she learned that there were some people here who wanted to thank her. We popped out, to her surprise, and her reaction was priceless. We all told her how much she has influenced us and thanked her, and, with that, our 10 minutes of fame were over.
This was an experience that I will never forget, to say the least. Between being on television to making someone’s career by having them realize how much they are actually valued brought me so much joy. I would never trade this experience for something else.
