This year, 267 third-year pharmacy students will don their white
lab coats during a ceremony in Marillac Auditorium at 7 p.m. that
will initiate them into their first professional year of the
six-year Doctor of Pharmacy Degree Program. In a ceremony that
calls students to the podium individually by name, it will conclude
with students taking a pledge of professional conduct collectively
once they return to their seats, in front of faculty, staff, their
friends and family members.
“We’re pleased to present Karol J. Wollenburg, ‘98 GP, and the
Apothecary in Chief for the New York Presbyterian Health System,
with an award as a Distinguished Alumna,” says Joseph M. Brocavich,
Pharm. D., Associate Dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Wollenburg will also address the students as
the evening’s guest speaker, and Dean Robert A. Mangione will
introduce the faculty.
“When the third-year students put on their lab coats, they
assume a new level of responsibility for patients and the
profession,” says Associate Dean Brocavich. “There’s symbolic
significance in this ceremony,” which is a six-year-old tradition
at St. John’s University. The third-year class is exceptionally
large because of higher than expected student retention. “This
attests to the high caliber of the students,” he explains.
There are 1,550 students in the six-year Doctor of Pharmacy
Program, and 40 students in the Post-Baccalaureate Program. The
College of Pharmacy converted from a five-year Bachelor of Science
Program to a six-year doctorate program in 1998. The current
enrollment is comprised of 30 percent male students and 70 percent
female students, which Associate Dean Brocavich says is the trend
at pharmaceutical schools nationally.
CVS/pharmacy, sponsor of the event, underwrote the cost of the
lab coats, which students will wear during their experiential work
in community pharmacies, hospitals and organizations such as the
American Pharmaceutical Association. The lab coats feature the St.
John’s insignia, so students wearing them will be identified easily
as being from the College of Pharmacy. A reception, also sponsored
by CVS, will be held for faculty and students from 5 to 7 p.m.,
prior to the start of the program, on Marillac Terrace, adjacent to
the cafeteria.