Drake University today announced a gift of $300,000 from Hy-Vee, Inc., to distinctlyDrake—the University’s current fundraising effort. The gift will go toward the construction of the Morgan E. Cline Atrium for Pharmacy and Science, which will enhance Drake’s exceptional learning environment by providing an inspiring place for thought, creation, and socialization between students and faculty in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The gift addresses a key priority of distinctlyDrake—the renovation and expansion of the science facilities on campus.
“The success of the College and our graduates is predicated by the engagement of employers such as Hy-Vee,” said Raylene Rospond, dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. “These groups provide learning environments both on-campus and in the community that develop Drake Pharm.D. graduates into quality practitioners that are engaged with their patients and the community.”
Hy-Vee’s gift will create the Hy-Vee Student Learning Commons on the first floor of the Atrium. The technologically advanced Commons will be outfitted with multiple collaboration stations with enhanced technology that will enhance creativity, team-building, problem-solving, collaboration, and individual and team preparation. This state-of-the-art space will will also serve as venue for college and campus-wide events.
Drake and Hy-Vee have a long-standing and mutually beneficial partnership. The stores’ pharmacies have long served as a valuable training ground for pharmacy and health sciences students, providing experiential education opportunities and mentor relationships with Hy-Vee’s pharmacists and health care professionals.
Since 2006, more than 450 Drake pharmacy and health sciences students have worked across 45 individual Hy-Vee sites. That partnership continues after graduation for many students; since 2001, more than 80 pharmacy graduates have started their careers at Hy-Vee. Drake has also partnered with Hy-Vee to provide diabetes education and management training to more than 100 of their staff pharmacists.
“We’re proud to have the best and the brightest pharmacy practitioners in the United States working for Hy-Vee – many of them from Drake and other universities right here in the Midwest,” said Bob Egeland, vice president of pharmacy for Hy-Vee, Inc. “Our partnership with Drake to create this collaborative learning environment on campus reflects Hy-Vee’s ongoing commitment to the university and its pharmacy students.”
To date, Drake has received more than $113 million in gift commitments to distinctlyDrake. The fundraising effort is designed to propel the University to its place as one of the nation’s very best institutions of higher learning.
See Drake’s live webcam to see construction on the Atrium progress.