Through various programs, including an innovative pipeline program for high school students, the College of Pharmacy’s Urban Health Program helps to diversify the college and the profession. By Daniel P. Smith
As a junior at Chicago’s Morgan Park High School, Dr. Cassandra Clermont-Fadowole, PharmD ’18, admits she knew little of pharmacy, which was more a word on Walgreens or CVS signage than a potential career. That all changed when the South Side resident entered the UIC College of Pharmacy’s Urban Pipeline Program (UPP) in the summer of 2009. The marquee initiative within the College of Pharmacy’s Urban Health Program (UHP), UPP is an eight-week experiential and mentoring program designed to expose underrepresented minority students from Chicago Public Schools and south
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SPRING 2020
suburban Rich Township District 227 to careers in pharmacy. Through classroom instruction and hands-on work in a CVS retail pharmacy, students like ClermontFadowole gain an intimate look into the pharmacy world and its possibilities. “This opened my eyes to the valuable work pharmacists could do and the important roles they play in healthcare and people’s lives,” Clermont-Fadowole says. Since the UPP’s founding 15 years ago, the pipeline program has successfully exposed African American, Latinx, and American Indian students to pharmacy and increased the number of underrepresented minorities entering the professional ranks.
