Creating diverse professionals in Pharmacy

As a

sophomore at Clayton High School, Rebakkah Johnson heard from her

counselor about an opportunity to be a “college student” for six

weeks at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy through the BESt

Pharmacy Summer Institute.

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Her mom

was thrilled, but six weeks of science and math in the summer time

was a hard sell for her. With the extra nudge of a stipend

incentive, she applied and completed BESt I and II over the course

of two summers.

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“It was

the best decision I’ve made in my life,” she

said. 

Not only

did she enjoy learning with multicultural students like herself,

but she also became comfortable with the school itself, she said.

When she graduated high school, she enrolled in the St. Louis

College of Pharmacy because she felt confident she could complete

the program. 

“I was

ready for the challenge because if I went through two summers of

all this strenuous work, then I thought I was ready,” she said,

“and I am.”

Launched

in 2008, the BESt Institute’s goal is to educate, train and prepare

multicultural students for a career in pharmacy, said Isaac Butler,

MBA, PharmD, the co-founder and co-director of BESt and director of

program integrity at Express Scripts Inc.

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On Friday,

April 29, the BESt Institute will receive the Health Care Advocacy

Organization of the Year Award at the St. Louis American

Foundation’s 11th Annual Salute to Excellence in Health Care Awards

Luncheon at the Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis. A reception will be held

from 11 a.m. to noon, and the awards program will follow from noon

to 1:30 p.m. 

The “BESt”

acronym stands for Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Express Scripts and St.

Louis School of Pharmacy. The leaders at the heart of the program

are Butler, Steven Player, MBA, PharmD, inpatient pharmacy manager

of diversity and recruitment at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and Freddie

Wills, director of diversity at the college.

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“I think

the most exciting part of the program is the success we are having

today,” Butler said. “One hundred percent of our students have gone

on to four-year colleges and universities.”

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About 90

percent of those are choosing careers in health care and 70 percent

have chosen careers in pharmacy.

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“Now these

are all very gifted and bright students; however pharmacy is not

the most promoted health care profession,” he

said. 

In its

first year, the BESt Institute hosted 30 students. Last year it

enrolled 64 students, and now offers three program levels starting

with high school freshman. The institute was the brainchild of

Player, co-founder and co-director. When Player began designing the

program, he knew that it would only be successful with the right

partners, he said. Express Scripts and STLCOP were natural choices,

and Butler and Wills helped him execute the

plan. 

“Once we

started developing what a potential pipeline would look like, it

became clear that we needed to align ourselves with corporate

partners that had the same vision and same commitment of corporate

responsibility to the community we serve,” Player

said. 

Both

Butler and Player are products of such programs

themselves. 

“My path

to becoming a pharmacist and a heath professional is very similar

to the students who we have in the program,” Butler

said. 

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“I lacked

a certain level of exposure and certain level of belief until I got

involved in other programs like INROADS and Upward Bound. When I

think about the mission of BESt, hopefully we are hoping students

become what they truly want to become.” 

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Wills, an

East St. Louis native, was an athlete in high school and college,

who obtained scholarships. Knowing the challenges of finding his

own way first hand, he has developed several programs to engage the

youth into health-care career paths, who would normally not have

exposure to such fields.

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“The

biggest thing that we are offering to the students is to get a real

life experience of what it is like to be a college student,” Wills

said. “We basically engulf them into our culture here at the

college. We do not treat them as if they are high school students

while they’re here.”

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Johnson

said what she most enjoyed was getting that inside view of what

pharmacy was like.

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“We got to

visit Barnes Jewish and see what Dr. Player did and went to Express

Scripts and saw what they were all about,” she

said. 

And

because she was taking Calculus and English classes in the summer,

she sailed through her high school classes with ease.

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“I didn’t

know what I was getting into – no one did,” she said. “But I met so

many wonderful people and other students who were going through

this with me.” 

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“font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>Tickets for the