"Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine."
- Lord Byron
Since 1997, Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) has partnered with the College of Pharmacy to provide middle school youth with a weeklong camp designed to inspire youth to pursue careers in Pharmacy or other Health Sciences. This one-week camp provides fun, hands-on activities and field trips that help youth experience how fun and meaningful pharmacy and health science careers can be. PharmCamp introduces youth to various health professions and helps them learn more about the roles pharmacists play in clinics, community pharmacies, hospitals and other locations.Students will spend a week exploring the exciting world of Pharmacy and present their findings to family and friends on the final day
Students will be present at the UofA College of Pharmacy for the week and experience the college campus.
If you would like more information, please contact Bill Pike at wpike@email.arizona.edu or call 520.626.2300.
Pharm Camp will be May 29-31
To register, click here: Register
WHAT DO PHARMCAMPERS DO?
- Meet and work with current students and alumni of the College of Pharmacy.
- Visit a pharmacy and/or healthcare clinic and speak with Pharmacists.
- Do fun, hands-on projects in research labs at the College of Pharmacy and/or Medicine and tour other parts of campus.
- Participate in exciting compounding lab exercises like making lip balm and lotion. Participate in group projects and presentations.
- Build skills that will allow them to perform calculations and activities that pharmacists use on a daily basis.
- Learn about the discovery of new medicines, the history of traditional medicines, poison prevention, and even sunscreen.
Dates for Pharm Camp
May 29-31, 2024 @ The University of Arizona R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy
8:30-4:30 Wednesday - Thursday
Graduation and Reception will be held on Friday 1:00-3:00
WHY FOCUS ON MIDDLE SCHOOL?
PharmCamp focuses on Middle School students because we know that early outreach makes a difference. Take, for example, Rayna Carpio's story. In 1997, 13-year old Rayna Carpio was in our first cohort of PharmCamp students. Before PharmCamp, Carpio did not know what she wanted to be when she grew up. But after that first summer's experience, when it came time to sign up for a second summer camp and PharmCamp wasn't on the list, she wrote it in. "Before the first PharmCamp, I didn't even know what a pharmacist was," says Carpio. "After the second camp, I knew I wanted to be one."
Carpio pursued her dream by volunteering at pharmacies while she attended Desert View High School and Pima Community College in Tucson. After graduation, she wanted to get out of her home town and see new things -- so she applied to and was accepted by the pharmacy program at the University of Southern Nevada. For her final year in the program, during which students do experiential rotations in a variety of settings, she asked that all of her rotation sites be in Tucson. USN granted her request. At a meeting Carpio attended during her rotation at El Rio Clinic, Carpio ran into the COP associate dean in an elevator. "I recognized Dr. Tong immediately," says Carpio. "He looks exactly the same. He didn't remember me, but I told him I still have the poster I made in ninth grade after PharmCamp describing my decision to become a pharmacist."
Reyna now works for Wal-Mart as a pharmacist.