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CVS Health Minority Scholarship for Pharmacy Students

Deadline to apply is May 1, 2019 11:59 p.m. Hawaii Time (May 2, 2019 5:59 a.m. Eastern Time).

AACP is committed to fostering an inclusive community and promoting diversity of thought, background, perspective, and experience to advance pharmacy education and improve patient health. Driven by this commitment, we are excited to announce that AACP and CVS Health have partnered to create a new CVS Health Minority Scholarship for Pharmacy Students. This scholarship is intended to promote and support a diverse population of student pharmacists who will care for an increasingly diverse population of patients as part of a health care team.

If you have any questions, please contact scholarships@aacp.org.

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Program Information

The CVS Health Minority Scholarship for Pharmacy Students will consist of five scholarships given to outstanding underrepresented minority students accepted into a PharmD program for the 2019-2020 academic year OR currently enrolled in their first (P1) year of the professional phase of the PharmD program during the 2018-2019 academic year. Selected awardees must demonstrate leadership, academic success, and a commitment to advancing the profession of pharmacy and patient care. Each recipient will receive a single $8,000 scholarship. The purpose of the scholarship is to reduce the financial barriers and challenges for underrepresented minority (URM) students who are pursuing a PharmD degree.

Eligibility Requirements

Qualified applicants must meet the following requirements:

Student must be accepted into a PharmD program for the 2019-2020 academic year or currently enrolled as a first year (P1) PharmD student in the 2018-2019 academic year at an ACPE pre-candidate, candidate, or accredited AACP member institution.
Student must be an underrepresented minority (URM) student. AACP identifies URM individuals in pharmacy as black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and/or Pacific Islander students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Student must demonstrate leadership, academic success, and a commitment to advancing the pharmacy profession and patient care.
GPA for current degree program must be 3.0 or greater on a 4.0 scale. See Part 2: GPA Verification for more information.
Student must submit a completed application by the deadline.
If a scholarship is awarded to an accepted (not yet enrolled) pharmacy student, the award will be granted to the institution after the individual has started classes in the PharmD program. These students will be ineligible to apply for this scholarship again in the future.

Scholarship Requirements

A single scholarship in the amount of $8000 each will be awarded to five (5) outstanding URM students accepted into OR currently enrolled in their first (P1) year of the professional phase of the PharmD program at the time of submission.

AACP will pay the scholarship funds for each awardee directly to the pharmacy college or school where the student has been accepted or is currently enrolled. Funds will be dispersed in fall 2019 after the 2019-2020 academic year begins. Each institution will exclusively apply the scholarship funds to the awardee’s tuition and/or fees.

Scholarship Notification

Scholarship recipients will be notified by mid-July 2019
Funds will be forwarded to the student's institution on or shortly after the start of class for Fall 2019.
AACP will announce the scholarship recipients on the AACP and Pharmacy is Right for Me websites and social media channels.

Application Deadline

Completed applications are due by May 1, 2019 at 11:59 p.m. HT (May 2, 2019 at 5:59 a.m. ET).

Application Instructions

Part 1: Application Basics

All applications must be submitted online by the program deadline. The application will require the following information to be considered complete. In the application, an asterisk (*) indicates a required response.

Applicant Information

Name, address, email, phone, gender, citizenship status, AACP college or school of pharmacy where you are currently enrolled or will enroll, and current academic status at the time of submission (accepted PharmD applicant or P1 current student pharmacist). Note: Students who are currently enrolled in a 0-6 program are eligible for consideration during their 2nd year of their pre-professional/undergraduate study and during the first year of the professional phase of PharmD program.

Race/Ethnicity Information

This scholarship is intended to support underrepresented minority (URM) students in pharmacy education, identified as U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and/or Pacific Islander.

Language Fluency

List all languages in which you are conversationally fluent.

Educational and Environmental Disadvantaged Status

This information will be used for aggregate reporting purposes only and not considered in the application review process.

Part 2: GPA Verification

Document to be uploaded. To be eligible for consideration, GPA must be 3.0 or greater on a 4.0 scale. Enter your GPA for your current degree program and upload an unofficial copy of your most recent transcript. Your GPA and unofficial transcript will only be used to determine eligibility and not otherwise considered in the review process.

Applicants from schools with other grading systems are still eligible to apply for the scholarship. As part of the application, a letter from the school confirming its grading system and the student’s good standing in the PharmD program to date would be needed.

Part 3: Applicant Resume

Document to be uploaded. Your resume is a very important part of your competitive scholarship application. This will be used to help differentiate your application from others and allow you to showcase your academic and extracurricular involvement. Below are a few requirements and helpful tips for you to use before you upload your resume.

Limit resume to no more than 2 pages.
If you use any acronyms, also provide the full name.
Use headers and/or section titles to organize your resume.
Briefly describe any leadership roles and/or involvement.
Include length of time spent in organizations and/or leadership roles.

Part 4: Applicant Essay

Describe how your life experiences as a minority student influenced in your decision to pursue a pharmacy career. Select one aspect of your background or one characteristic about yourself, and describe how it will contribute to your success in pharmacy and the well-being of future patients.

You are strongly encouraged to compose your essays in a separate word processor, then copy and paste as plain text into the appropriate text box . Use line breaks (the return key) to separate paragraphs. No other formatting will carry forward. Limit essay to 750 words.

Part 5: Faculty Letter of Support

PDF to be uploaded in online submission platform.

Instructions for Faculty Member: Describe the applicant's attributes and how they will contribute to a successful career in pharmacy. Include specific examples in support of the student, how well and long you have known the student, and in what capacity. Letter may be submitted by either an undergraduate or pharmacy faculty member.

**Please note: The faculty’s letter of support must be uploaded as a PDF on the application. Uploaded letters must comply with the following formatting requirements: PDF file, institutional letterhead, Arial font size 11, 1-inch margins, and double-spaced; maximum of 2 pages. Only properly formatted letters will be reviewed.

Part 6: Pharmacist Letter of Support

PDF to be uploaded in online submission platform.

Instructions for Pharmacist: Describe the applicant's attributes and how they will contribute to a successful career in pharmacy. Include specific examples in support of the student, how well and long you have known the student, and in what capacity.

**Please note: The pharmacists’ letter of support must be uploaded as a PDF on the application. Uploaded letters must comply with the following formatting requirements: PDF file, Arial font size 11, 1-inch margins, and double-spaced; maximum of 2 pages. Only properly formatted letters will be reviewed.

Evaluation of Applications

Evaluation Overview

AACP staff will determine that all applications are complete and eligibility requirements have been met, such as GPA standing and student classification level. Once requirements are verified, the application will be move through the evaluation process. An evaluation scale from zero to five or zero to ten is used for scoring each of the evaluation criterion, respectively.

AACP and CVS Health will use the specific criteria by which all applications will be judged. The evaluation team will look for well thought out, organized, articulate, and complete applications, with evidence that awardees demonstrate leadership, academic success, and a commitment to advancing the profession and patient care.

Evaluation Criteria

I. RESUME: weight factor = 25

The applicant resume is used to determine the degree to which the student had demonstrated academic involvement and engagement both on and off campus, as well as the leadership ability shown through professional, educational, and extracurricular experiences.

Academic Engagement and Leadership (10 points possible)

Participation in academic-related activities and clubs (5 points)
Leadership roles in academic organizations (5 clubs)

Extracurricular Commitment and Leadership (10 points possible)

Participation in extracurricular activities (5 points)
Leadership role in extracurricular organizations (5 points)

Format (5 points possible)

Spelling and grammar, formatting, clear headings and sections (5 points)

II. SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY: weight factor = 35

Essay content (30 points possible)
Spelling and Grammar (5 points possible)

III. FACULTY LETTER OF SUPPORT: weight factor = 20

Evidence of Student's Attributes
Potential for Student's Success in Pharmacy

IV. PHARMACIST LETTER OF SUPPORT: weight factor = 20

Evidence of Student's Attributes
Potential for Student's Success in Pharmacy