It’s never too early to introduce children to career opportunities.
Although the St. Louis College of Pharmacy has been offering such opportunities to high-school students for several years, college leaders wanted to start the pipeline a little earlier this year.
On June 8, about 30 middle-school students from McKinley Classical Junior Academy completed the week-long “Summer Pharmacy Academy.” This was a pilot summer camp designed to teach students about the profession of pharmacy and give them hands-on lab experience in compounding medicines.
The program originated from a conversation between College President Dr. John Pieper and St. Louis Public School Superintendent Kelvin Adams. They decided to start with students from McKinley, a SLPS magnet school, and expand from there if all goes well.
“It’s about working with the people who live in the City of St. Louis and their children to talk about opportunities in pharmacy and to engage them to a trajectory that will prepare them to be competitive,” Pieper said. “We want them to get some sense of how science education is important.”
D’Ajeane Lowe, 13, said her week in the pharmacy academy was one of the most memorable in her life. She plans to get her PhD in psychology; however, she enjoyed getting to know her peers better and increasing her understanding of science.
“Many of the students were able to get a better idea of what they wanted to do in the future,” she said. “I think many of them are thinking about going into pharmacy.”
The college funded the program, which cost about $15,000, Pieper said. Students learned about how prescription and over-the-counter medicines affect the body and how medicine dosages are calculated. They also learned medical terminology and abbreviations and created their own lip balm and calamine lotion.
Freddie Wills, director of diversity at the college said, “Engaging students through early awareness programs affords them a chance to learn about pharmacy in an academic environment. The goal is to introduce pharmacy and peak an interest in the profession for the students.”
The college also has two programs that focus on 10th through 12th graders. The BESt program is collaboration between Barnes Jewish, Express Scripts and the college, and it focuses on minority students. The Walgreens Explorer program is a direct employment initiative. The high school students spend six weeks in a summer college program, and at the end of it, they come out of it as pharmacy technicians. Walgreens also commits to hire them.
“I believe we have to mirror the community we live in, and the fact is we simply have not,” Pieper said. “We have to put in place programs that reach out and recruit strong groups of students that reflect our community.”
Pieper said Missouri is among the nine states that still have a high demand for pharmacists. Last year, 75 million Baby Boomers hit 65 years of ago, which will make the demand even higher, he said.
“The pharmacy industry is evolving from being product-oriented to being more patient education and coaching adherence in chronic disease managements,” he said. “There’s a huge shortage of primary care physicians. We feel that pharmacists are in a sweet spot.”
