PharmCamp Celebrates 28 Years of Community Education
Established in 1997 by Theodore Tong, PharmD, PharmCamp has served as an invaluable resource for educating students across southern Arizona for the last 28 years. The program runs for one week each summer, with activities and lessons designed to educate and inspire middle school students to pursue careers in pharmacy and health care. In 2025, 26 students joined ranks with more than 900 graduates of the summer camp who have successfully engaged in an array of workshops, lab exercises, presentations, discussions, and field trips to increase their awareness of and interest in health science degrees and careers.
In the three decades since the graduation of the first cohort, PharmCamp has made its impact on the community across generations and helped countless campers discover their passion for health care and medicine. Students are selected from an extensive applicant pool of candidates to participate in the program, which provides activities, breakfast, and lunch free of charge, ensuring each camper has access to opportunities to experience and learn regardless of circumstance. In 2025, 19 girls and 7 boys were enrolled, with only 46% reporting that their parent or guardian had graduated from some form of higher education, indicating that the majority of the 2025 cohort has the potential be a first-generation college student. PharmCamp previously operated statewide, with a large presence in Yuma, Mesa, Nogales, Casa Grande, and Phoenix, until the COVID-19 pandemic, when the operation became restricted to the UA campus. Demand for the program and the limited number of seats available hints at future growth opportunities for areas outside of Tucson and Southern Arizona. The program is sponsored each year by R. Ken Coit, an alumni of the College of Pharmacy and a generous benefactor of the University. Tong is also the inaugural holder of the R. Ken Coit Endowed Chair title in the college.
PharmCamp activities are designed to prepare the next generation of health care professionals for the careers and specialties available to them, including pharmacy, nursing, medicine, and other practices. To facilitate this, the annual cohort participates in hands-on demonstrations, presentations, activities, and lectures in conjunction with faculty and staff of the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, the College of Nursing, and the Arizona Poison & Drug Information Center. Notable courses this year included: “What Do Pharmacists Do?”, “How Medicines Work; Precision Medicine”, “Bites n’ Stings”, and “Poison Prevention”, as well as tours of the Coit Museum of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, the UA College of Nursing Patient Simulation Laboratory, Drug Research and Discovery with SWEHSC director Nathan Cherrington, PhD, and pharmacy compounding where they were taught to formulate anti-itch lotions, lip balm, and gummy lozenges.
Beyond practical applications, PharmCamp is a critical resource for pre-high school students to begin planning their future academic and career goals. Students reported a greater interest in health-related careers once completing PharmCamp, with 61.5% of campers naming health-science careers as their top choice in 2025, a comparative growth in interest from an initial 47%. Graduates were also more likely to report a desire to earn graduate-level degrees than they were at the start of the program, showed an increased awareness of career opportunities, and expressed stronger self-efficacy in STEM-related fields and activities.
Q&A With a Camper: Anya Arora, PharmCamp '25
You were a first-year camper in 2025 – what did you enjoy most about the experience? Did any activities or lessons stand out to you?
I really enjoyed the interactive guest speakers and the chemistry labs, especially when we made lip balm and lotion. That was a lot of fun!
What was the most interesting thing you learned or got to do at PharmCamp?
I learned about how protective sunscreen really is and what the SPF means. I also learned how to write a medicine prescription. I was really surprised to learn the history of pharmacy and their own ‘language’ that they use on prescriptions.
Now that you’re a PharmCamp grad, what advice do you have for campers next year?
Never hold yourself back from asking questions. There are never weird questions. There are a lot of amazing people out there researching and trying to solve problems- they are also asking questions, because to ask questions is the first step to becoming a scientist.
Talking with Tong, you can see the true passion he holds for the program and the dedication it has taken to keep the camp going for 28 years. The most important takeaways for campers are simple, he stresses: active listening, teamwork, participation, responsibility, curiosity, and a sense of community. Though delivered through the medium of pharmacy, the program is an opportunity for middle-schoolers to cultivate skills vital to careers across multiple disciplines and fields. The goal is not to create a cohort of pharmacists, but a group of students with the practical and educational experience, toolkit, and confidence to pursue any career path that inspires them.
“Students, instructors, and counselors at PharmCamp work together to create this community of learning,” he adds. “Everyone relies on each other to make the experience happen and to learn from it. We structure the week so that no one person has the chance to fall behind or get left out. It’s a team effort.”
In the time since PharmCamp’s first cohort graduated, the program has been under constant change and revision to make its teachings and opportunities as valuable and tailored as possible to each new class. Feedback is taken from campers, instructors, student counselors, faculty members, middle school educators, and even the family and friends of PharmCamp participants. Key points of growth and adjustment – like the rise of social media, or during and after the COVID-19 pandemic – have all acted as a catalyst for evolving and adapting to the needs of young students. Catching them at this point in their lives and setting them up with skills for success reminds them that they can achieve academically and professionally – whether through programs aimed at high schoolers, like the Bio5 KEYS Research Internship, the Med-Start Health Careers Program, or even by future attendance at the University of Arizona.
“The stories that come out of PharmCamp are amazing, and the motivation behind what the program hopes to achieve,” Tong says. “Students begin to open up and enjoy learning. They think about what they want to do with their lives, and the impact they want to create. Some of them have family histories that encourage them to educate themselves about healthcare and medicine. When the students leave PharmCamp, they are equipped with a new outlook on themselves and their future. That makes all the difference.”
Tong has been with the Coit College of Pharmacy since 1982 and has continued to be an invaluable resource for generations of students and faculty. He has served on several professional pharmacy associations, boards, and organizations, including the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy, and has won numerous awards and honors for his service to the pharmacy college and pharmacy community. You can read more about Tong and his excellent community service and outreach on the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy website.
PharmCamp 2026 will be held May 26th-29th. Registration is currently open for a cohort of 25 middle schoolers eager to learn, listen, communicate, and explore the world of health sciences. Questions about this year's participation and activities can be directed to the Office of Early Academic Outreach (EAO) at (520) 626-2300.