Good Neighbor Pharmacy Provides 7 College Scholarships

Seven lucky high school students interested in a health care career recently won college scholarships through AmerisourceBergen’s Good Neighbor Pharmacy (GNP) 2015 scholarship program.

Totaling $12,500, the scholarships were made possible through 28 GNP pharmacies in Virginia and 16 in North Carolina.

The students’ applications were vetted by a Good Neighbor Scholarship Committee. Students were required to write a 200-word essay on “Improving the Health of My Community,” and they also had to hand in their school transcript and a list of extracurricular activities that indicated interest in leadership.

The students also needed to provide an explanation for why they thought they deserved the scholarship, plus a letter of recommendation.

This year, students showed increased interest in the scholarships, as the applicant pool of 287 was nearly 200% higher than 2014’s pool, according to a GNP press release.

The 2015 Good Neighbor Pharmacy Scholarship winners and sponsors were:

· $5000: Allison Burns of Hanover High School in Mechanicsville, Virginia (Colonial Pharmacy)

· $2500: Mitchell Kreisel of Currituck County High School in Barco, North Carolina (GNP)

· $1000: Grant Kiser of Harrisonburg High School in Harrisonburg, Virginia (Fishersville Family Pharmacy)

· $1000: Katherine Quigley of Stuarts Draft High School in Stuarts Draft, Virginia (Stuarts Draft Family Pharmacy)

· $1000: Kaleigh Smith of Nelson County High School in Lovingston, Virginia (Stoney Creek Pharmacy)

· $1000: Charles Strimel of Nelson County High School in Lovingston, Virginia (Stoney Creek Pharmacy)

· $1000: Gibson Barker of Eastern Alamance High School in Mebane, North Carolina (Haw River Discount Drug)

“Independent pharmacists play a critical role in their local communities by fostering wellness and shaping health care delivery. This scholarship program gives them another outlet to support their communities by assisting outstanding students in their higher education,” stated Dave Neu, president of GNP at AmerisourceBergen. “It is our hope that these scholarship recipients will use their education to contribute to the health care field and perhaps even become independent pharmacists themselves.”