By: Francisco M. Franco
APhA-ASP’s Midyear Regional Meeting is always a much anticipated weekend for students at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, and this year was not the exception. A total of 35 students and one faculty advisor embarked on a nine hour trip from Saint Louis to downtown Oklahoma City. A little more than half of our students had never attended a professional meeting before. The expectations were high, but we were confident that MRM was going to be “THE” meeting that would spark a fire that would lead them to Be The Change. And it certainly did!
During the Saturday morning session, our chapter had the opportunity to do a presentation about an event that is one of our longest standing community outreach projects. STLCOP C.A.R.E.S. is our largest school wide event. C.A.R.E.S. stands for Community Awareness Reaching Everyone in Saint Louis and it started back in 2006 shortly after our umbrella organization was established. The leaders of the umbrella organization were looking for ways to get all the professional organizations under the umbrella involved in one single event and that’s how STLCOP C.A.R.E.S. was born. It started out very small, with just a few gardening sites and a few pharmacies throughout the Saint Louis metro area. This year STLCOP C.A.R.E.S. grew to unprecedented heights with a total of 390 students, 14 faculty/staff at 48 different locations throughout Saint Louis. Our students helped with city beautification, food banks, gift wrapping for children, blood pressure screenings, blood glucose screenings, and BMI screenings. In addition to our non-clinical volunteer sites and clinical health screening sites, we incorporated a couple of new programs into the C.A.R.E.S program. We integrated the Missouri Pharmacy Association’s Falls Prevention Program. Thirty-two specially trained student pharmacists provided fall risk assessments and education/counseling at three different assisted living sites and the program was a huge success. Thirty-eight residents were screened and they thought it was wonderfully worthwhile. We also had twelve student pharmacists participate in the Health Professional Student Leadership Council (HPSLC) Community Service Day. HPSLC is Saint Louis’ own interprofessional student council that encompasses the school of nursing, school of medicine, audiology, physical therapy, occupational therapy and the college of pharmacy. As this year’s student coordinator, Julie McGinley, eloquently put it, “STLCOP C.A.R.E.S. has continued to grow and change to meet the dynamic needs of our student body and St. Louis residents, while continuing to embrace the original spirit and tenor of the day—Community Awareness Reaching Everyone in St. Louis.”
APhA-ASP’s Midyear Regional Meeting is always a much anticipated weekend for students at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, and this year was not the exception. A total of 35 students and one faculty advisor embarked on a nine hour trip from Saint Louis to downtown Oklahoma City. A little more than half of our students had never attended a professional meeting before. The expectations were high, but we were confident that MRM was going to be “THE” meeting that would spark a fire that would lead them to Be The Change. And it certainly did!
During the Saturday morning session, our chapter had the opportunity to do a presentation about an event that is one of our longest standing community outreach projects. STLCOP C.A.R.E.S. is our largest school wide event. C.A.R.E.S. stands for Community Awareness Reaching Everyone in Saint Louis and it started back in 2006 shortly after our umbrella organization was established. The leaders of the umbrella organization were looking for ways to get all the professional organizations under the umbrella involved in one single event and that’s how STLCOP C.A.R.E.S. was born. It started out very small, with just a few gardening sites and a few pharmacies throughout the Saint Louis metro area. This year STLCOP C.A.R.E.S. grew to unprecedented heights with a total of 390 students, 14 faculty/staff at 48 different locations throughout Saint Louis. Our students helped with city beautification, food banks, gift wrapping for children, blood pressure screenings, blood glucose screenings, and BMI screenings. In addition to our non-clinical volunteer sites and clinical health screening sites, we incorporated a couple of new programs into the C.A.R.E.S program. We integrated the Missouri Pharmacy Association’s Falls Prevention Program. Thirty-two specially trained student pharmacists provided fall risk assessments and education/counseling at three different assisted living sites and the program was a huge success. Thirty-eight residents were screened and they thought it was wonderfully worthwhile. We also had twelve student pharmacists participate in the Health Professional Student Leadership Council (HPSLC) Community Service Day. HPSLC is Saint Louis’ own interprofessional student council that encompasses the school of nursing, school of medicine, audiology, physical therapy, occupational therapy and the college of pharmacy. As this year’s student coordinator, Julie McGinley, eloquently put it, “STLCOP C.A.R.E.S. has continued to grow and change to meet the dynamic needs of our student body and St. Louis residents, while continuing to embrace the original spirit and tenor of the day—Community Awareness Reaching Everyone in St. Louis.”