Celebrating nearly a century of educating the next generation of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists, the School of Pharmacy (SOP) will welcome about 159 students at its White Coat Ceremony 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 20, in Education 2 South.
The welcome speech will be given by SOP Dean Ralph Altiere, PhD. The students will then be called to the stage in alphabetical order where they will be helped into their coats by Dr. Cathy Jarvis, assistant dean for student & professional affairs and Dr. Kari Franson, associate dean for professional education. Once they return to their seats, the students recite the professional pledge that they have developed together during orientation week.
“It’s an exciting time for the first-year students as it commemorates another milestone in their education and the beginning of their journey to becoming a pharmacist,” explains Dana Brandorff, director of communications and alumni affairs at the SOP.
SOP, one of the top-ranked pharmacy schools in the United States and 12th in the nation for total NIH funding, has held the ceremony since 1999 with the first PharmD class. The school was originally established in 1911 – with two students and one faculty member – as a department of the School of Medicine at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The 159 students welcomed this fall make up the second largest SOP class ever. The largest class was the incoming class of 2009 with 160 students. The school has 57 faculty members and about 600 students overall.
Some more interesting stats about the class:
- Number of applicants: 943
- 84 residents
- 75 non residents
- 97 female
- 62 male
- 96 percent with Bachelor degree or higher
Students will be educated in the biology of disease, the properties and actions of drugs and best practices for clinical and therapeutic uses of drugs.
Photo: SOP student Ricardo Kim dons his white coat at last year's ceremony.