Brady's Roadhouse

Waynesburg University has made an agreement with Duquesne University regarding the pre-pharmacy and pharmaceutical science majors. Both of those became majors at Waynesburg University in the fall.

Chairperson of the department of chemistry and forensic science, Dr. Evonne Baldauff, said students get the pharmacy degree title at Duquesne University, and there are two paths a student can take to get to Duquesne.

“It’s got an official name, it’s called the Pre-Pharmacy Early Entry Program,” Baldauff said of the pre-pharmacy route. “And that’s where a student would come to Waynesburg for two years, take course work, there are other requirements that they need to meet as well, and then they would transfer into Duquesne.”

“The second thing that a student could do is come to Waynesburg for three years, earn a degree from Waynesburg University either in pharmaceutical science or biology and then go and get their PharmD from Duquesne,” Baldauff said.

Baldauff mentioned that these two degrees are very different. The pre-pharmacy major allows students to become a pharmacist, while the pharmaceutical science major allows students to become a researcher on new drugs and technologies.

Baldauff said the pursuit of the agreement with Duquesne was worthwhile so that, “our students would have seats there should they want them. We have four guaranteed seats at Duquesne now, which is great, and we hope that people will take advantage of it.”

Assistant professor of chemistry, Dr. Takashi Suyama, said that the COVID-19 Pandemic broke out around the time the new majors were being developed. 

“I actually thought that this was good timing,” Suyama said. “Just in the general public there probably will be, like, increased interest in pharmaceutical sciences. Early in the pandemic we had a shortage of certain medicines in the U.S.” 

The department of chemistry and forensic science now includes the pre-pharmacy and pharmaceutical science majors, and both Baldauff and Suyama hope to see students take advantage of the new opportunity.