Three recent gifts to the University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy, two from alumni and one donated anonymously, will benefit students and support the College’s Pharmacy Innovation Fund.

While pharmacists are known for working behind the counter, Jeffrey Bratberg a University of Rhode Island pharmacy professor also gave his students a chance to get behind the camera. Communicating Vaccines, a pharmacy elective course, focuses on identification, prevention and control of infectious diseases that pose threats to public health. Students in the class were not only tasked with completing reading assignments but with producing their own videos to promote positive information about vaccines.

Larry Merlo, President and Chief Executive Officer of CVS Health, emphasized the importance of finding a mentor and the expanding opportunities in the fast-growing pharmacy market during a recent talk hosted by the University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy.

It’s only six years old, but the University of Rhode Island’s undergraduate program in pharmaceutical sciences has already made a mark with 100 percent of its graduates employed or in graduate school. Launched in 2009 by the College of Pharmacy, the four-year undergraduate program enrolled just 16 students in 2010. Now about 200 students are enrolled in the program. Twenty-nine students will graduate May 17.

Anyone who walks through the pharmacy building or almost anywhere else on the University of Rhode Island’s Kingston campus with Lanh Dang better be prepared to stop so she can greet friends, professors and staff. That’s because the driven sixth-year doctor of pharmacy student with the infectious smile and engaging manner has been involved in so many campus activities that it takes six pages to summarize them all.