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PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS:
Lipscomb University offers high school students a hands-on look at future careers as Pharmacists through the Boy Scouts Explorers program
Ambitious high school students from Nashville and surrounding areas came together throughout the school year to explore a career as a pharmacist. The Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy sponsors an Exploring program for these ambitious high school students through the Boy Scouts of America. Students are offered a career interest survey through their high school at the beginning of the school year, and those students who choose Pharmacy as a career path are then invited to participate in Lipscomb's eight month program.
Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy led this program for the second year this year. The Pharmacy Explorer program grew from 30 participants the first year to enrolling over 60 high school students this year. The Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy Explorer Post encourages a traditional way of finding a career path: hands-on learning. The students met once a month and participated in a variety of activities from "A Night of Experiments" where students simulated the spread of a pandemic disease through an airport, to a firsthand look at Anatomy and Physiology with real cadavers, to making lotions in a Pharmaceutical Compounding and Dispensing Laboratory, to tours of a hospital pharmacy, to encounters with retail pharmacists in their habitat. Students and their parents were also given an opportunity to ask questions of a panel of experts including the Lipscomb College of Pharmacy Dean, Pharmaceutical Sciences Professors, researchers, the Clinical Pharmacy Director of a local hospital pharmacy, a pharmacy resident, the Director of Admissions for Lipscomb's College of Pharmacy, and several first year pharmacy students. Students listened to the panel of experts talk about the varying roles of pharmacists, the educational path to become a pharmacist, the demand for pharmacists in the marketplace, and then the most important question for a high school student, the going salary for pharmacists. "We really want to spark an interest in these students and open their eyes to all the opportunities available through a career in Pharmacy," said Sandra Hood, Pharmacy Explorer Post Advisor for the Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy.
As participants in the Lipscomb Pharmacy Explorers Program, students were given an extraordinary opportunity to participate in the launch of the CVS Pathways to Pharmacy program. CVS Pharmacy partnered with Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy to design and implement a pharmacy workforce development program to meet the rising demands of the health care industry and better prepare students to be competitive in the health care arena. The CVS Pathways to Pharmacy program is a 5-week paid summer internship offering high school students work-based learning experiences, personal development workshops, and math and science enrichment activities that hope to expand the number of students who graduate from high school and pursue pharmacy as a career. Five students were selected to participate in the internship after extensive interviews were conducted. The students participating in the internship are:
- Jade Readus- Hume-Fogg Academic High School
- Brittany Jenkins- Ensworth High School
- Rabia Osman- Hume-Fogg Academic High School
- Mena Azab- Glencliff High School
- Tiara Starks- East Literature Magnet High School
These students are assigned to CVS Caremark stores, the Caremark Corporate Center and the Call In-Center. They will also participate in interdisciplinary learning by attending the Nursing and Healthcare Academy at Lipscomb University during the summer. At the end of the 5-week internship, students should have a better understanding of the pharmacy environment and use that knowledge to continue to aspire to become Pharmacists.
For more information about the Explorers program, click HERE.