Robert C. Johnson Scholarship

Established in 1998 to honor the former Executive Vice President of the California Pharmacists Association, Dr. Robert C. Johnson, this scholarship recognizes students who have demonstrated leadership and an interest in advancing the profession. While scholarly achievement is necessary, student interest in the profession, the community and professional societies is emphasized for scholarship recipients.

Pharmacy Foundation of California (PFC) is offering up to three $1,000 scholarships in 2011. Each California school of pharmacy is encouraged to promote the scholarship to all eligible students and select their school's scholarship candidate (one per school) by December 1, 2010. Candidates will receive a “VIP” invitation to attend PFC’s annual Leadership Breakfast & Awards program scheduled at Outlook 2011. All of the candidates will be recognized at the awards program and each will receive a certificate of achievement. The selected scholarship recipients will be unveiled and awarded with their scholarship checks.

Criteria

CPhA/ASP members in their second to last year of pharmacy school (3rd year of a 4-year program or 2nd year of a 3-year program) who have a 2.5 GPA or better.

To be considered, the following must be submitted:

Official application form detailing specific qualities of character and leadership in each of the following areas:

· Academic/Honor Societies

· Academic/Professional Organizations

· Community Service Activities

· Service to the University

Two letters of recommendation.

A proposal for a 1 year, $100,000 project which provides an innovative approach to addressing a problem of interest to PFC. For 2011, PFC is requesting proposals for a project that would leverage student pharmacists to promote increased consumer awareness and use of PFC’s free online medication risk assessment tool (www.SafeMedService.org).

Please note that PFC only intends to use the proposals as a tool to assess candidate aptitude for leadership and improving the community and profession. There should be no expectation that PFC will execute or fund a winner’s proposal, or that a winner will use their scholarship monies to carry out any work related to their proposal.

To provide the RCJ Scholarship program and its winners with heightened exposure, scholarship recipients will be expected to provide a 15 minute presentation of their proposal at PFC’s annual Leadership and Awards Breakfast. This event will take place on Friday, February 11 at Outlook 2011 in Palm Springs, California between the hours of 8:00am and 10:30am. Because the winners of the RCJ Scholarships will not be announced before the event, all candidates must be prepared to present their proposal. Any candidate who believes they may not be able to attend the event must notify PFC at their earliest opportunity to make alternative arrangements.

Given the intended use of the proposal, it is requested that candidates omit non-critical details and submit their proposal on 15-20 PowerPoint slides. For additional information about the proposal subject matter, and what to include in certain sections of your proposal, please email Shannon Presidio.

Nomination Process

Each school/college of pharmacy is responsible for identifying an individual or group to:

Promote the availability of the scholarship to the entire population of eligible individuals within their university in an effort to collect as many applications as possible.
Receive and review submitted applications for completeness of eligibility and criteria requirements.
Identify one or more applicants as their school’s candidate(s) and submit the nomination packet(s) to the Pharmacy Foundation of California by 11:59pm on December 1, 2010. Complete nomination packets include the official application form, two letters of recommendation and the project proposal. Nomination packets sent via email must be received by the deadline date and be sent to spresidio@pharmacyfoundation.org. Nominations sent via mail should be postmarked by the deadline date and sent to: Pharmacy Foundation of California • Attn: Awards & Scholarship Division • 4030 Lennane Drive • Sacramento, CA 95834. Faxed and late submissions will not be accepted.

Selection Process

PFC staff will review all nomination packets submitted by the deadline for completeness and conformity with the nomination guidelines. Incomplete nomination packets will not be considered. Acceptable nomination packets will be forwarded to the PFC Board of Directors Awards Committee for evaluation and selection of the scholarship recipients, with ratification by the full PFC Board of Directors.

Scholarship Announcement

All candidates will receive written notification from PFC that they have been nominated by their school as a candidate for the scholarship. Candidates will also receive a VIP invitation to attend PFC’s Leadership & Awards Breakfast at Outlook 2011. At the breakfast, all of the candidates will be recognized and each will receive a certificate of achievement. The selected “scholarship recipients” will be unveiled and awarded with their scholarship checks.