Pharmacy college in Kingsville doing well

KINGSVILLE — It may have taken years to build and fund the Texas A&M Health Science Center's Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy, but it has taken only one year for South Texas to begin seeing the impact of the region's first professional school.

The school's inaugural class is in its second year, and students have begun rotations with participating pharmacies and hospitals across South Texas.

College Dean Indra Reddy said all 76 students admitted into the first class in 2006 have progressed into their second year.

"There is a lot of pioneering spirit in this group," Reddy said. "We consider them to be trailblazers."

One of those trailblazers is 27-year-old Sergio Valdes -- one of the original students admitted into the school in 2005, a year before funding was secured.

Valdes, a Corpus Christi native, delayed the start of pharmacy school a full year until the Rangel College of Pharmacy opened its doors in 2006.

He didn't mind the wait.

"I always thought it was a great opportunity to be able to go to a pharmacy school so close to where I live," Valdes said.

In September, Valdes and his classmates received their white coats in a ceremony that marked the beginning of their professional lives.

Valdes plans to return to the city as a pharmacist upon graduation. He is the type of student the college's founders wanted to serve -- the type who would help to alleviate the growing pharmacist shortage across the country.

According to the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education, there are about 8,000 pharmacist vacancies in the United States, with about 71 pharmacists per 100,000 people.

The shortage in Texas is even more striking.

Data from the Texas Department of State Health Services indicate the shortage is most dire along the U.S.-Mexico Border. Among border counties, the pharmacist per 100,000 population ratio is about 58. In rural border counties, the number drops to about 41 pharmacists per 100,000.

Corpus Christi pharmacist Ron Garza, an outspoken advocate for creating the Kingsville pharmacy school, said the college is doing everything to make a difference in the future of pharmacy.

One day a week, Garza mentors Valdes, providing him with real-world pharmacy experience at DeLeon's Clinic Pharmacy.

"It gives me a sense of satisfaction to know that the next generation of South Texas pharmacists are going to come from South Texas and that they are on their way to learning the discipline," Garza said.

Reddy said the college and its community partnerships are continuing to grow. The school's clinical rotation network -- pharmacies and hospitals willing to work with students -- now stands at about 160.

For fall 2007, the college admitted its second class of 77 students, 73 from Texas and four from out of state.

The college also now is in its second stage of accreditation and expects to enter the third once the inaugural class graduates in 2010.

"All of these advances mean the trust placed in us by the state is well-founded and our students will go on to serve their communities as pharmacists," Reddy said.

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