Pharmacy’s Next Generation

Rockford Reaches Pharmacy’s Next Generation at Summer Institute Pharmacy’s

Every summer, the UIC Rockford campus makes a big investment in pharmacy’s future. The school’s Summer Pharmacy Institute (SPI) welcomes some of the country’s most promising undergraduate students considering health care, hosting them in a weeklong, intensive exploration of the profession.

Led by UIC Pharmacy faculty dedicated to giving these enthusiastic students a hands-on, immersive pharmacy experience, the institute benefi ts future pharmacists, the fi eld in general – and UIC in particular, said UIC Rockford College of Pharmacy Vice Dean Dr. Kevin Rynn. This year, the institute’s fourth, SPI expanded to two weeklong sessions, with a total of 50 attendees (double previous years). Students now come from across the country, including 20 from Puerto Rico and some from as far as California.

“We’re doing it, I think, as a service to the profession in trying to attract more people to pharmacy,” Rynn said. “But we’re also doing it to attract people to UIC College of Pharmacy. … We’re always trying to get the best and brightest to come to pharmacy school here.”

When Rynn and other UIC faculty interact with SPI attendees, however, the professors’ focus is on helping the students understand the profession. “I tend try to take off my UIC hat at that point,” Rynn said.

For many students, the biggest lesson from SPI is that the world of pharmacy extends far beyond the gleaming-white walls of their local Walgreens. SPI makes a concerted effort to ensure that students learn, yes, about retail pharmacy, but also hospital pharmacy, ambulatory care, and research and development.

“So many people think that it’s just retail — Walgreens, CVS. But there are so many other career opportunities,” said Cindi Schaefer, MEd, a UIC Rockford Student Program Advisor, who works on the institute. “Students had an eye-opening experience because they got to see all of the different career paths.”

This year’s two sessions ran June 3-7 and July 22-26, with different UIC Pharmacy faculty heading each day. Area pharmacy professionals also lead sessions, and current PharmD candidates serve as interns, giving attendees a fi rst-hand perspective on what pharmacy school is like. As in other years, the fi rst day covered community and retail pharmacy, while the second day focused on ambulatory care, with talks on HIV advances and activities in immunization. Day 3 took on research, including a tour of Thermo-Fisher and a hands-on compounding-lab experience.

Both weeks fi nished up with experiential sessions, RPharm and pharmacy school admission, as students saw presentations on admissions and “How to Be Successful in Pharmacy School.”

Usually, some of the most popular activities have given participants hands-on experience, said Katie Clarizio, UIC College of Pharmacy recruiter who works on the program. In one session, students made IV in the compounding lab and then tried injecting it into an orange.

“They were able to see how the drug is compounded and then the delivery of the drug and then practice how they would give it to the patient,” she said. “That one seemed to be a standout session.”

Many students, too, are excited to learn about the research opportunities with a pharmacy degree, Schaefer said.

“A lot of the students … did not even realize that was an opportunity for them within pharmacy,” said Schaefer. "It was really just eye-opening for them to see that they could still do hard-science stuff.”

The institute collects participant feedback, too, and students have frequently echoed that “eye-opening” part. “Overall, I learned A LOT,” said one. “This defi nitely showed me many things I never knew/heard about pharmacy.” Another called it a “very fun & eye-opening experience.”

SPI seems to accomplish its main goal, too, of helping students choose a career path, with statements like “I have a better understanding of the pharmacy profession” earning 4s and 5s out of 5 in feedback.

P2, Phoebe Phoebe Kunjara Na Ayudhya, a 2022 UIC PharmD candidate and an SPI intern who attended SPI herself, agreed that the experience eases the decisionmaking process. “I attended SPI knowing I wanted to pursue pharmacy, but I really felt like being there and experiencing it solidifi ed my decision,” she said.

That positive experience traces, in large part, to UIC faculty’s dedication to introducing participants to pharmacy, Clarizio said.

“It’s really great that faculty are interacting with the students,” she said. “It shows that our faculty are interested in giving back to prospective students and future pharmacists or future health care providers, because they’re just so passionate about it.”

The program gets a lot of support from the Rockford community, too, with area pharmacy professionals coming in to engage with students. The Community Foundation of Northern Illinois additionally funds housing for students from outside the area and subsidizes tuition costs for local participants.

“To me that just proves that the community itself … believes in the program and believes in the UIC College of Pharmacy,” Clarizio said.