Pathways to Pharmacy Program: A Prescription for Excellence
Program Overview
The United States population is now more racially and ethnically diverse and the U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the year 2050, the total numbers of non-Hispanic Whites will be less than 53% while under-represented minorities (URM) will make up more than 47% of the total population (Hayes, 2008). In the Healthy People 2010 the guiding principle for improving minority health, noted that “the future of the nation will be determined to a large extent by how effectively we can work with communities to reduce and eliminate health disparities between non-minority populations experiencing disproportionate burdens of disease, disability, and premature deaths” (Health People, 2010). The pharmacy profession has been identified as one of the critical healthcare industries with severe shortages of URM. According to the Sullivan report, URM pharmacists seem to be “missing persons” in this field.
The University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Pharmacy has a long history of its commitment to recruit and retain, and graduate URM students, and to expand educational opportunities for this population at the pre-college (K-12), undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels. In the College’s investigation of the problem of low representation of URM students in pharmacy school, we found that this was due to the lack of exposure among minority elementary and high school students. This in effect has placed great limitations on the pharmacy pipeline. To address the shortage and expose URM students early on to the pharmacy profession, and to better prepare them to be competitive in the admissions process, the UIC-COP, CVS/ pharmacy, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Department of College and Career Preparation partnered in 2005 to offer a unique and comprehensive pharmacy program for high school students. The goal is to cultivate the next generation of URM pharmacists. Also included in this partnership is a community stakeholder group known as the Coalition for United Community Labor Force (CUCLF).
The PWP is an eight-week comprehensive academic, experiential, mentoring, professional and social development summer enrichment program. Guiding the program is the “Theoretical Framework Model for Success in Pathways to Pharmacy High School Program” (Awe, 2009) that was developed by drawing from higher education student success literature and further informed by the Educational Policy Institute’s Pathways to College Network Framework (2005). Although the program is 8 weeks long, the COP continues to track program participants longitudinally. One of the ways we accomplish this is by forming a pre-pharmacy club and bringing the students back to the college to continue with the pharmacy socialization process through increased interaction with faculty and student mentors.
Due to the success of the UIC-PWP, in 2008, an exploratory partnership was established with District 205 in the south suburbs. Nine students from Thornton high school (one of the schools in District 205) were selected to participate in a pilot program along with the CPS students. In 2009, 20 students from District 205 will participate in PWP. The UIC-COP follows rigorous selection criteria for the students that in the program. Listed below are the selection criteria, program structure and goals.
Student Selection Criteria
Students will be required to submit the following:
- Personal statement (one page maximum) stating their interest in the program
- High school transcript
- A cumulative grade point average of 3.0/4.0 or higher
- Involvement in at least one extracurricular activity or community service
- Obtain a Pharmacy Technician License and undergo drug testing.
- Pass drug test
- Participate in a joint interview with COP and partner representatives
Program Structure:
- Participation in a rigorous academic and social enrichment curriculum,
- Socialization into the pharmacy profession
- One-on-one interaction with clinical pharmacy practice faculty members
- Comprehensive orientation to pharmacy career opportunities
- Provide mentoring opportunities with COP pharmacy students and pharmacists
- Provide transition from high school to college life skills workshops
- Acquire job skills experience as pharmacy technicians
- Exposure to various parameters of retail pharmacy and store operations
UIC- COP Program Goals
- Expose all student participants to careers in pharmacy
- Students to matriculate into the UI system and eventually to UIC-COP
- Encourage under-represented minority high school students to pursue careers in pharmacy
- Broaden and enrich students’ math, science, and critical thinking skills
- Provide early socialization to a college of pharmacy environment and faculty members
- Participate in the pre-pharmacy club
- Interact with COP students who will serve as mentors and tutors
When asked what the most meaningful experiences from the program were, the following were some of the student responses:
- Shadowing and working with College of Pharmacy faculty members
- Opportunities for hands-on experiences
- Cultivated relationships with other students
- Learning how to socialize and speak publicly and professionally
- Learning about the profession more by working as pharmacy technicians at the CVS stores
- Participation in the Pre-pharmacy club in the college and the exposure to various speakers
- Being mentored by pharmacists
The College of Pharmacy model program clearly shows that all the stakeholders will benefit with this program. It is different from other types of high school career exploration programs because the UIC-COP model is backed by strong educational theoretic framework, faculty and administrator commitments that guarantee success.
