Continuing its efforts to help prepare interested New York City
high school students for the profession, the College of Pharmacy
and Health Sciences at St. John’s University has embarked on a
formal affiliation with the Union Square Academy of Health Sciences
(U.S.A.).
“This collaboration fosters the mutual missions of St. John’s
University and U.S.A. in reaching out to the youth of our diverse
metropolitan communities to offer opportunity and excellent
programs,” said S. William Zito, Ph.D., Acting Dean of the College
of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The College formally entered upon
the agreement with the new technical and career school on December
12, 2012.
The academy opened in September to educate students for careers as
dental assistants, dentists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists.
It is located at Union Square facility formerly occupied by
Washington Irving High School, which has closed. Its advisory board
includes associate professors from the Clinical Pharmacy Practice
Department at St. John’s: Sharon See, Pharm.D., BCPS; Regina
Ginzburg ’99P, ’01Pharm.D.; and John Conry ’96P, ’98Pharm.D. They
assist U.S.A.’s principal, Bernardo Ascona, in developing a strong
pharmacy-based curriculum.
The partnership is an ideal way to meet the goals of the new
school, Ascona observed. “We decided to create a career and
technical education high school that focuses on pharmacy because
students in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn have not had the
opportunity to acquire the expertise to enter the field,” he
said.
“Minorities and especially women are underrepresented in the
pharmacy profession,” Ascona added. “To build a workforce that
represents the multiculturalism of New York City, we need high
schools to partner with industries and universities engaged in
science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This way,
students will learn the latest trends in fields like
pharmacy.”
Although U.S.A. is still in its first year, admission to the school
has become highly competitive. Plans continue to assist students
through efforts to enhance their familiarity with the profession
through pharmacy tours and opportunities to shadow some of the
College’s clinical pharmacy faculty. “Our support can help provide
students with the tools and substantive experience for either
becoming pharmacy technicians or going on to pharmacy school,” said
Dr. See.
This latest partnership builds upon existing initiatives of the
Urban Pharmaceutical Care, Research and Education Institute,
directed by Dr. Conry. To help prepare students for
pharmacy-related careers, the institute has established
partnerships with many high schools throughout the New York City
area. At the Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School,
for example, St. John’s clinical faculty helped to create a
pharmacy club and arranged tours of the Queens campus. “The
pharmacy club has provided interested high school students with an
opportunity to interact with each other as well as with faculty at
the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences,” said Dr. Conry.
This past summer, the institute kicked off its inaugural “Changing
Faces of Pharmacy” program, designed to introduce and broaden high
school students’ understanding of the pharmacy curriculum. The
program was supported by a Walgreens Diversity Donation Fund
grant.
“We were delighted by the enthusiasm and extremely positive
feedback of the 18 high school student participants, their parents
and the current Pharm.D. student mentor participants,” said Dr.
Conry. “Clearly, the initial meeting for this yearlong educational
program was a great success.”