The USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy (TCOP) is calling all middle schoolers, high schoolers, and pharmacy technician students to spend one week of their summer vacation learning about the pharmacy industry during the second annual Pharmacy Career Orientation Camp, held June 19 to 23.
This four-day immersive experience will expose young students to the many opportunities available in a career in pharmacy.
The camp exposes participants to all aspects of the academic, clinical and research missions of USF Health. Experiences include:
- Lab tours
- USF campus pharmacy tours
- Student, staff and faculty question and answer sessions
- Hand-on experiences in pharmacies filling prescriptions
- Interactions with other health college students
- Understanding bioinformatics
- Introduction to artificial intelligence in pharmacy
One of the key teaching points of the camp is to address any misconceptions and make sure students understand the role of pharmacists within interprofessional health care teams, according to Angela Hill, PharmD, professor and associate dean of clinical affairs and community outreach leader in TCOP. Discussions throughout the camp often speak about the “evolution of pharmacy,” as described by Dr. Hill, so students have a better understanding of how the pharmacy field continues to change and welcome in new innovations, including pharmacogenomics, nuclear medicine and nanotechnology.
Key topics include:
- Working within health care teams
- Prerequisites to being a pharmacy student
- Credentialing and making yourself more marketable as a pharmacist
- Non-clinical roles including research tech
- Master’s programs
The college has offered pharmacy orientation events since 2012 through the USF TRIO Upward Bound Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Last year, in 2022, was the first time they’ve taken the experiences and lessons learned, expanded and enhanced the hands on experiences and put it into a camp model.
“This would be the best time spent for any student to spend time with us. This is bigger than us. This is about investing in our future,” Dr. Hill said. “We’re grateful to USF for embracing and supporting us. We hope the Tampa Bay community can see that we care and we really want to help make sure we produce good citizens who can impact health care.”
The camp is $275 per in-person participant and $150 per virtual participant. Participants whose parents are USF employees receive a $25 discount to participate. For more information email Kareen Moreland at kareenmoreland@usf.edu.
Photos from 2022 camp:
