Published: May 19, 2008 08:17 pm         

Local graduate helps write history at UACP

OAKWOOD, Va. — When Robin Absher accepted her degree from founding chair Frank Kilgore, a new chapter was written in the brief but impressive history of the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy.

“I was definitely pleased with my experience,” Absher, one of 67 charter class graduates who received a doctorate of pharmacy degree Saturday, said. “There were some rough times, but I think their vision for our school — and the fact that they want to help serve the health care of the under served people of this area — that vision is what appealed to me and a lot of my classmates because this region is so medically under served.”

Absher said she realized Saturday’s commencement program for the charter class was a historic moment for the new pharmacy college.

“I did, but it was more along the lines of the entire class,” she said. “We had been together so much as a class we were like family. It wasn’t like I was walking by myself.”

The inaugural graduation will be remembered for generations to come as the history of the school is written, Kilgore said in an e-mail to the Daily Telegraph.

Kilgore, founder and former chairman of the board who led the campaign for the transformation of the old Garden High School into a new pharmaceutical college, said 64 of the 67 graduates will stay in Central Appalachia serving rural or medically under served areas.

Kilgore said the majority of the graduates have job offers and the majority of them have already committed to employers or further training in residency programs.

Absher, the first graduate to accept her degree during the inaugural ceremony, also will be staying in the region.

“Yes, I’ll be working in Tazewell,” she said. “I have no plans of leaving.”

The pharmacy college celebrated its grand opening in August 2004.

More than 1,000 students have since applied for the college.



Charles Owens writes for the Bluefield (W.Va.) Daily Telegraph.