FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 30, 2003

NATIONAL GROUNDHOG JOB SHADOW DAY ENCOURAGES FUTURE VALLEY PHARMACISTS

National Groundhog Job Shadow Day is tomorrow, January 31, and UCSF Fresno and Sunnyside High School Doctor’s Academy are partnering to interest area high school students in becoming a pharmacist.

The UCSF Fresno Pharmacy Education Program and the UCSF Fresno Latino Center are participating in the project. Job shadowing has proven to be an effective way to motivate students by showing them how academics are applied to the workplace.

“This is the first year that valley high school students will have the chance to experience firsthand what it would be like to be a pharmacist,” said Mitra Assemi, PharmD, acting program director of the UCSF Fresno Pharmacy Education Program. “This national program gives us a big step forward in expanding our outreach efforts and creating programs to encourage area students to become pharmacists.”

Sunnyside High School students will spend the day shadowing pharmacists from Longs Drugs, Kaiser Permanente, Children’s Hospital of Central California and University Medical Center. “The wonderful aspect about pairing pharmacists with valley high school students is that they will get to see pharmacists in action in different settings, not just behind the counter,” said Assemi. “If we can continue to expose students to the inner workings of the profession, we know we can be successful at growing our own valley pharmacists.”
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For more information about National Groundhog Job Shadow Day, or UCSF Fresno’s Pharmacy Education Program, please contact Cara Peracchi Douglas at 559.288.3257, or Mitra Assemi at 559.241.7660.