Students learn about pharmacy career
Written by Alex Davis Thursday, 16 February 2012 14:28
WHITESBORO – Last year, Middle Township Middle School students wrote down what they want to be when they grow up.
Some boys jotted down that they wanted to be an athlete, like an NFL football player.
But Johnnie Ponzie of the Concerned Citizens of Whitesboro said he wanted to give students a larger base when it came to career options.
Enter Dr. Clarence "P.D." Moore, who is a clinical pharmacist for Shore Medical Center. That medical center has an office in Cape May County and several locations in Atlantic County.
Moore is a Middle Township High School graduate who lives in the Green Creek section of Middle Township.
He spoke to students during Homework Club Monday at the Martin Luther King Community Center in Whitesboro.
“Not only was he [Moore] a football player, but he was a scholar,” Ponzie said.
Moore had also tried out for the Chicago Bears.
“So you’re looking at a bona fide star,” Ponzie told the students.
Moore told students that they should use their talents in paying for college. That’s what he did with a football scholarship.
As a 17-year-old freshman at Towson University in Maryland, he also played football with 23-year-olds.
Also during his college career, his football coach asked him what he aspired to be. Moore said he wanted to major in pre-medicine.
The coach said that would mean he would miss practices.
Moore said he would make it work.
He did. Moore started his days at 5 a.m. and continued a rigorous schedule throughout the day.
Moore had also been a most valuable football player while at Towson University.
But he was not just a student focused on sports. Moore finished college with a B-plus.
Moore also continued his education at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he graduated last year.
He also had prepared for his pharmacy career by working at hospitals, including Children's National Medical Center and Georgetown University Medical Center, both of Washington, D.C.
Moore asked students where they’d seen pharmacists. He named CVS/pharmacy and Walgreens.
“There are really pharmacists everywhere,” he said.
Pharmacists can be found at Walmart to working in nuclear pharmacy, he said. The nuclear pharmacy profession includes using radioactive materials to diagnose and treat certain diseases.
Moore encouraged students to focus on what they do well.
One girl said she sings.
Moore said that could mean a choir scholarship.
He also told students to focus on their grades.
Moore also hastened the students that they do not need to lay out their lives while in middle school.
Even so, Rakim Coyle has an idea of what he wants to be. The 12-year-old boy said he desires to be a football player or police officer.
“I want to follow in his [Moore’s] footsteps,” the sixth-grade student said.
He called Moore’s talk “an honor” to listen to.
Jonathan Smith, 11, a sixth-grade student, agreed with Coyle, saying he enjoyed Moore’s talk. Smith said he wants to be a dentist.
“I thought it was fun because it was interesting to learn about his [Moore’s] life,” said 11-year-old Siani Murray, a sixth-grade student.
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