This year, Belmont University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (CPHS) held a number of pharmacy workshops for high school students from schools across the Metro Nashville area. These students learned about different aspects of a career in pharmacy through a variety of activities and got to tour Belmont's facilities.
Spearheaded by Dr. Zachary Fricker, clinical pharmacist fellow in Drug Information, and his co-fellow Dr. Jessica Cook, the workshops aim to teach high school students the unique facets of the pharmaceutical industry and what a career in pharmaceuticals could look like. They hosted five workshops over the academic year, with the series concluding on April 8.
The workshops began as a labor of love from Dr. Austin Mondloch, a clinical pharmacist fellow from 2021-2023. “He thought bringing high schoolers in to learn about pharmacies would be a great time,” Fricker said. “It was a wonderful idea.”
They found the events were something they wanted to continue as a way to see if students showed increased interest in studying pharmacy after learning about it first-hand.
The workshops have several parts beginning with students attending a pharmacy profession presentation with Fricker. Next, they are taken to a non-sterile compounding activity where they get to make hand sanitizer and chapstick. They are then given a tour of Belmont’s on-campus pharmacy before returning to the Drug Information Center for a drug information scavenger hunt. Before leaving for the day, they play a final Clue-style game to learn about toxicology.
Because pharmacy is not a common career path to explore in high school, many students are not aware of all facets of the profession. Fricker found that, after being shown some practical examples of what the field holds, interests are piqued, and students become more engaged in the possibility of following that path.
“What I want to do is inspire students,” said Fricker. “One really inspired student makes it all worthwhile.”
Belmont is opening doors to careers that students may not have known about otherwise, offering them the opportunity to explore pharmacy in a new and engaging way. Under the guidance of Fricker, Cook and the CPHS faculty, Nashville’s high schoolers are unlocking passions and learning how to make their new dreams into reality.