The USC School of Pharmacy hosted the Los Angeles launch event of the CVS/pharmacy Pathways to Pharmacy program targeting high school students.

Highlighting the event on April 4 at the John Stauffer Pharmaceutical Sciences Center was author and educator Stedman Graham, speaking to 150 students about the importance of aiming high and overcoming adversity in life.

The attending students, all of whom have expressed an interest in a possible career in pharmacy, now have an opportunity to vie for about a dozen high school internships at CVS locations this summer.

The paid internship is an eight-week program that provides students with work experience at CVS stores. Career mentoring and life-skills training also will be covered as part of the program.

“These are some top students, some from disadvantaged backgrounds,” Graham said. “And giving them opportunities like this is the greatest thing in the world. We teach people to find out who they are so they can strive to achieve anything they want.”

While visiting USC, the prep pupils had an opportunity to meet and talk with current pharmacy students at the university as well as faculty and Dean R. Pete Vanderveen.

Juniors and seniors from Millikan High School and Jordan High School in Long Beach and the Santee Education Complex in Los Angeles attended the workshop.

CVS/pharmacy introduced the Pathways to Pharmacy program in 2000 in partnership with America’s Promise. To date, the program has served 6,000 students in more than 40 cities, with another 2,000 students projected to participate this summer.