On Friday, May 7, the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) will honor graduates of the university’s professional programs, extended academic programs and the inaugural graduates of UIW’s Feik School of Pharmacy (FSOP).  The ceremony is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., in the Alice P. McDermott Convocation Center, located on the UIW campus, and will also be broadcast via the World Wide Web.   Access to the Web broadcast will be available at www.uiw.edu.

The Feik School of Pharmacy will present 67 students as its inaugural graduating class. The pharmacy school will also hold an Oath and Hooding ceremony on Thursday, May 6 in the Chapel of the Incarnate Word.  At the Hooding Ceremony, graduates formally receive the academic hood representing their profession. Candidates will carry the hood to the stage, when their name is announced a member of the faculty will place the hood over the head of the candidate.  At the ceremony all candidates will also recite the oath of a pharmacist. The FSOP, established in 2006, is the only private school of pharmacy in Texas.  It is a state-of-the-art facility at the forefront of pharmacy education. The 67 graduates are all Texans, 8 percent are African American, 14 percent are Asian, 31 percent are Caucasian and 29 percent are Hispanic and range in age from their early 20’s to early 50’s.

Dr. Henry Cisneros, who will deliver the commencement address on Friday, also delivered the address at the university’s first White Coat Ceremony held for the Feik School of Pharmacy in 2006. The White Coat Ceremony symbolizes the commitment of the first-year pharmacy students to their profession as they don their white coats for the first time and take an oath pledging their devotion to providing the best patient care possible.  Many of those same students are among the inaugural graduates who will graduate on May 7.

The FSOP graduates are helping to meet a shortage of pharmacists in our area. They have received numerous job offers ranging from public health to retail opportunities, some offering as much as $122,000 to start.