“We are challenging College of Pharmacy alumni to make a difference by helping our alma mater build for the future. Please join us in supporting the College of Pharmacy. Our challenge grant will double your gift so that you can establish a legacy with an endowed scholarship to help pharmacy students for generations to come.” — Tom and Cathy Ryan

“ My mother does what she can to help me with school, but the majority of my college education is paid for by many loans. I don’t have the words to express how thankful I am for this scholarship,” said the recipient of the Jacob and Bayne Temkin Scholarship.–Sandra M. Rodak, who will earn her doctor of pharmacy degree in the spring of 2010, is one of three sisters from a single-parent family.

One of the definitions of the word “challenge” is a call to action. That’s exactly what Tom Ryan ’75, Hon. ’99, president and CEO of CVS/Caremark Corp. and CVS Pharmacy, Inc., and his wife, Cathy, had in mind when they pledged $2.5 million to the Making a Difference campaign.

The gift supports a variety of initiatives, but probably most central to the Ryans’ mission to enlist the support of others is the $500,000 Challenge Grant that bears their name.

The grant will match, dollar-for-dollar, donations of at least $12,500 from individuals wishing to establish endowed scholarships for pharmacy students.

“We are challenging College of Pharmacy alumni to make a difference by helping our alma mater build for the future,” the couple said. “Please join us in supporting the College of Pharmacy. Our challenge grant will double your gift so that you can establish an endowed scholarship to help pharmacy students for generations to come.”

The gift is especially appropriate in this 50th anniversary year of the college, said Pharmacy Dean Donald Letendre: “URI has been educating leaders in the pharmacy profession for half a century. Graduates of the college have a unique opportunity to establish a legacy that will give back to the college and help future pharmacy students realize their hopes and dreams. I am tremendously grateful for the generosity and support that Tom and Cathy Ryan have demonstrated again and again for the College of Pharmacy.”

As a 1975 graduate of the College of Pharmacy, Ryan can relate to the challenges facing students. The chair of the Making a Difference Campaign said he is proud of the college’s work in research, outreach, and teaching, “The college has helped many bright, talented, ambitious students begin successful careers.”

A long-time supporter of the college and of Rhody athletics, Ryan and CVS provided the majority of funding for the Thomas M. Ryan/CVS Chair in Community Pharmacy at URI, and he successfully co-chaired a $15 million private fund drive for the arena that bears his name.