The Pharmacist / Fall-Winter 2023 / Volume 1 / Issue 1

and multiple pharmaceutical consulting
companies, he said. “So students really have
access to almost all of the different routes
you can take with pharmacy.”
THE ROLE OF STUDENT
GROUPS
Even before the new elective, UIC Pharmacy
offered students valuable opportunities to
interface with pharma professionals, Hong
said. “These companies come to speak at
UIC on a pretty regular basis,” he said.
That happens as part of the regular curriculum,
through the new course’s predecessor,
which brings in speakers from all areas of
post–pharmacy school careers, including
industry. Student groups also play a big role
in giving UIC students exposure to pharma,
in particular the UIC student chapters of
the Drug Information Association (DIA) and
IPHO. These local branches of national
organizations “are just fantastic in terms
of how they help our students,” Schumock
said. “It’s the networking, the access to the
parent organizations . . . they provide a lot of
resources to the student groups.”
The new pharma-focused course builds on
the IPHO, which has brought speakers to
campus in an increasingly popular
extracurricular series, Bartels said.
“The interest in that has been growing
significantly over the last couple years, and
the amount of students that are enrolled in
the IPHO organization has skyrocketed.”
Student groups also played a leading
role in Hong’s journey to industry. In his
case, the Academy of Managed Care
Pharmacy (AMCP), where he became
chapter president, offered Hong his first
exposure to the industry and related
networking opportunities. “They are a [major]
professional organization that hosts national
annual conferences that bring in more than
10,000 professionals,” he said.
UIC’s IPHO chapter also gives students the
opportunity to experience pharma work
first-hand. In the group’s “case competition”
activity, members break into groups and
replicate the entire process of getting a drug
to market.
They’re designing a plan for a hypothetical
drug and they’re . . . laying out how they’re
going to implement getting this drug onto
market, said Bartels, the group’s advisor.
“So they have to spell out their marketing
aspects. What is their slogan going to be?
What’s their logo going to be?”
The several-months-long process leaves
students “very well rounded afterwards,”
Bartels said.
STRONG CLINICAL
FOUNDATION
UIC’s strong placement of pharmaceutical
fellows speaks not just to the school’s specific
strengths in industry, but also the general
quality of its program, Schumock said. “We’re
ranked in the top 10 nationally as a pharmacy
program, and we have been for a long time,
so that gives our students an advantage.”
In particular, the school’s unique clinical
focus helps UIC students stand out, he
added. “We’re known nationally as being
really focused on clinical pharmacy. That
reputation precedes our students and helps
in the application.”
Hong said he valued the clinical basis of his
education at UIC, as well as the chance to
get involved in research with faculty. Those
opportunities helped expand his notion of
what he could do with a pharmacy degree.
UIC is really strong on making sure students
are going to be clinically adept upon
graduation . . . and they offer these additional
supplements to our clinical knowledge, he
said. “I think the way I was introduced to the
pharmaceutical industry was appropriate, and
I honestly wouldn't change anything about it.”
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