Listening closely to lab-coated instructors and donning disposable scrubs for some of the hands-on activities, 57 biomedical science students from the Anaheim Union High School District’s elite Oxford Academy explored potential careers on a spring field trip to the Chapman University School of Pharmacy.

Oxford Academy is a 1,200-student multicultural school that has been ranked 12th in the nation by the U.S. News Best High Schools report. With only 200 spots for entering seventh-grade students available each year, students from the Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) attendance area are selected by application and exam.

Ron Jordan, dean of the School of Pharmacy, welcomed the students to the Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine, and instructors introduced them to such topics as prescription compounding, deciphering prescriptions and applying to pharmacy programs.

“From learning how to read a label and counting ‘pills’ (they were candy), to putting on lab gear and mixing their own lip balm, the students where all hands in,” said AUHSD representative Nohemi Duran, who joined the students on the trip.

Chapman’s programs for entering undergraduates include the Pre-Pharmacy Freshman Early Assurance Program (FEAP), a 2+3 program for academically exceptional students who spend two years studying on Chapman’s Main Campus and receive a conditional acceptance into the three-year Pharm.D. program at the Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine, enabling them to complete a doctor of pharmacy degree in five years.

Laura Cook, Pharm. D., director of the Freshman Early Assurance Program, said the School of Pharmacy will fund the trip again next year and “looks forward to introducing another promising group of young people to the profession of pharmacy.”

(Photo/Jun Cuenca)