Imagine this: You’re one of Canada’s best-known and most respected professors of Pharmacy, with an enviable list of research and teaching credentials to your name. One day your phone rings and a voice offers you the chance to design and create a cutting edge Pharmacy school from the ground up. No limitations, no parameters – just create a dream and run with it.

That’s the invitation that Dr. Jake Thiessen got from the University of Waterloo back in 2004. And he’s been busy making the dream come true ever since.

Dr. Thiessen is the visionary and guiding force behind the brand new University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy, due to enrol its first class of about 100 Pharmacy undergraduates in 2008. In the quest to create a school that breaks new ground in Pharmacy studies, Dr. Thiessen has spent three years travelling throughout Europe and North America, gathering ideas and opinions from some of the world’s finest Pharmacy educators, researchers and innovators. Everything about the school -- from its first-in-Canada co-op program, to its unique medicine garden, to the way it selects applicants -- will be unique and innovative.

We sat down recently with Dr. Jake Thiessen, the man behind this remarkable project.

Most educational institutions are scrambling for funding. How did you acquire the money to get your new school off the ground?

Dr. Thiessen: “It’s really quite a remarkable story. Kitchener had a parcel of land in its downtown area that it wanted to redevelop as part of a strategy to revitalize the centre of the city. After conducting research to understand the numerous options, the city’s officials decided that bringing a University and our project to the site would be the prescription for rejuvenation. So, in a heroic decision, the City of Kitchener donated $30 million plus the land to build our school and kick-start the development. Please understand, this wasn’t provincial government funding – the people of Kitchener made it happen. What other city in the world would have the vision to do that kind of thing? It was a courageous and far-sighted investment in the future, and it’s something other cities can learn from. Later, we also received generous support from the Region of Waterloo, a broader tier of municipal government in our area. The Region committed $15 million to help provide infrastructure for the McMaster University medical program which is coming to our site.”

One of the things that will set the new School of Pharmacy apart is its co-op program. Why was co-op so important to your vision?

Dr. Thiessen: “One of the complaints by numerous employers is that students from Pharmacy schools have not been coming out with their feet on the ground, ready to work. They’ve had excellent head knowledge, but the translation of that into practice has not been great. When I came to Waterloo, I was brought face to face with the concept of co-op education. It certainly was a compelling educational approach, to make graduates ready for the workplace. It was intriguing to learn how this Waterloo “brand” was shaping the lives of students and that many employers, including Bill Gates, were selecting its graduates because the kids possessed real world experience, and could problem solve and take on complex projects. It seemed to be a no-brainer. However, as you know, Pharmacy schools have typically used the medical model – learn all the theory first, and put the practical experience at the end. To be frank, we really wrestled with the entire concept of experiential learning and how co-op might work in Pharmacy. Clearly, we felt that going in this direction would be swimming up-stream. Ultimately, with the encouragement of many pharmacists and employers, we decided to adopt co-op. It will have a profound impact on our students! And this is the perfect place to do it: the University of Waterloo has a vast understanding of this model; more than 13,000 students experience co-op every year. We’re committed to it, and it’s going to happen.”

Continue to part two...