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The College of Pharmacy, Downers Grove (CPDG) held its annual PharmAcademy week where 42 juniors and senior in high school had the opportunity to learn about a variety of career possibilities in the field of pharmacy under the direction of Sheila Wang, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCIDP, Professor, Pharmacy Practice at the College of Pharmacy.

Some of the topics students learned about included rare diseases, the history of pharmacy, and naloxone, a medication used to treat opioid overdose. 

“The program is a great way to immerse yourself in the real life of a pharmacist, get information about medications, vaccines, and prescribing medication,” said Laith Badwan, a senior at Hinsdale Central High School. “One thing I learned is that more than 350 million people have rare diseases around the world,” he shared. 

“I didn’t know what rare diseases were. This was eye-opening,” echoed Marisol Kasper, a senior at Providence Catholic High School. 

Students also had a microbiology lab where they practiced gram staining (staining a sample to view it under the microscope), learned how to test for strep throat, and observed various specimens under the microscope. Marisol shared that she enjoyed the learning experience of the microbiology lab along with learning about specialty pharmacy. “There is so much to learn, so much more than the surface level of the community pharmacist everyone knows, like at Walgreens. This experience will help me make sure pharmacy is what I want to study and do,” Marisol said. 

The high school students also received information about community pharmacy and the variety of roles a pharmacist can have, including staff pharmacist, pharmacy manager, patient care pharmacist, and central processing pharmacist. They learned about several current clinical service offerings, including travel health consultations. These consultations apply in situations where a patient is traveling to a country and requires vaccinations or medications, such as for malaria. The high school students were shown the process of data verification, such as determining a medication and dosage from a doctor’s handwritten prescription and the steps to take to ensure the proper dosage and medication are followed. The high school students were also advised to apply for pharmacy technician roles after they turn 16, in order to gain experience in the field and ensure pharmacy is the career path they want to follow. 

The students learned about immunization and practiced a mock vaccination. They also learned about specialty pharmacy, such as hematology and oncology, and the daily responsibilities including checking the anticancer regimens, patient counseling, and writing order sets.

“I like the lectures,” said Kenna Brokowski, a senior at Evanston Township High School. “I learned about specialty pharmacy and how pharmacies specialize in different illnesses.” Kenna shared she learned about several different practices of pharmacology. “I want to go into research and development in pharmacy.” She continued, “PharmAcademy helps us choose what to study and the classes to take.”

One of the pharmacy student mentors, Fredjah Desmezeaux (CPDG ’26), shared, “I’m impressed seeing the teens so young taking initiative to explore the field of pharmacy.” She continued, “These programs put out information about the field. A lot of kids have no idea about the opportunities. I like how kids asked questions and expressed how they liked the program and how much they learned.”

The students were given information about research opportunities in pharmacy, and the pathway to becoming a clinical pharmacist scientist. Some of the responsibilities of the clinical pharmacist scientist include the analysis of data prior to publication, creating studies, and running the clinical development strategies. 

Dr. Wang highlighted her journey into specializing in infectious diseases and discussed the residency and fellowship training that would follow upon receiving the Doctor of Pharmacy degree to pursue this path. She shared that pharmacists are at the forefront of infectious diseases, and that they appear in every field, including emergency medicine, outpatient IV therapy, research, and drug policy.

The students had a chance to listen to heart, lung, and bowel movement normal and abnormal sounds. They found out more information about diabetes and participated in an activity featuring diabetes devices. They also learned about the emerging field of pharmacy informatics, which combines technology with pharmacy. 

PharmAcademy is a way to show high school students the scope of pharmacy beyond the stereotypical drugstore pharmacy. The sessions offer students an opportunity to explore several career possibilities and the paths to get there, and they catch a glimpse of what their future careers could be like in a few years.