Golf Tournament Supports Scholarships
The funds are split into two accounts, with $50,000 going to the Good Neighbor Pharmacy/Institute for Community Pharmacy Scholarship Fund to directly support student scholarships. The remaining $5,000 will be placed in the GNP/ICP Endowed Scholarship fund that will be fully funded with this installment. The USC School of Pharmacy also received $55,000. To date, more than $1 million has been given out in scholarships to students at WesternU and USC.
Mike Quick of AmerisourceBergen/Good Neighbor Pharmacy, a member of WesternU’s Board of Trustees, is a founder and chief organizer of the event.
College of Pharmacy Dean Daniel Robinson, PharmD, enjoyed the golf outing with his son, Scott Robinson, and Mike Anton from Ameriprise Financial, along with Lynh Nguyen, a second-year student pharmacist at WesternU.
“I really appreciate the work our WesternU recipients provide to the tournament each year, and it was especially rewarding to have one of our students actually golf with us. The fact that our student player helped us reduce our score by 12 strokes over last year didn’t hurt either, ” Robinson said.
WesternU’s College of Pharmacy scholarship recipients were Dhaval Vithalani, Chinda So, Lubna Kazi, Sandip Patel and Krinaben Shah, who were on hand to assist with the tournament. These students have a special interest in independent community pharmacy, and with Dr. Jesse Martinez’s guidance will actually produce a mock business plan to establish their own pharmacy in the future. Martinez is the College of Pharmacy Vice Dean of Academic Diversity and Development.
“Independent pharmacy owners will continue to be needed, as many owners are now reaching retirement age,” Martinez said. “Our graduates will be ready to not only be the pharmacist in charge, but will have the leadership and management skills to run a pharmacy.”
The event attracted 225 participants, filling both challenging courses at Robinson Ranch. Western University was well represented, with Trustee John Forbing, Senior Vice President of Advancement Thomas Fox, College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Phil Nelson, Dean Robinson, Vice Dean Jesse Martinez, Associate Dean Sam Shimomura, Dr. Moses Chow, Dr. Rudolf Mireles, and Executive Director of Public Affairs Jeff Keating.
“In this challenging economic environment, the GNP/ICP Scholarship Golf Classic continued to reach its annual goals,” said Paul Stover, Director of Development for the College of Pharmacy.
WesternU’s College of Pharmacy would like to especially thank WesternU President Philip Pumerantz, Dean Robinson, Dr. Martinez, Dr. Sam Shimomura, Dr. Martin Kim of the Korean Pharmacist Association , Vicenti, Lloyd and Stutzman, Dr. Brian Garner of Hendrick’s Pharmacy, Dean Nelson, Trustee John Forbing and his wife Diane, Trustee Vince Naimoli, Pomona Valley Hospital, Inter Valley Health Plan, Bert and Rocky’s, Wildfire Gymnastics, Waller Gymnastics, The Dodger Organization, Galleano Winery, Pala Casino, In-N-Out, South Coast Plaza, Joe Marilo, Jess Lopatynski, Sherry Slade, Julie Avila, Renee Cook and Danielle Roane.
Robinson added that “The College of Pharmacy is very fortunate to have the great support of WesternU Trustee Mike Quick and his leadership at AmerisourceBergen’s Good Neighbor Pharmacy for this yearly fundraising effort.”
