GRAY – During an assembly at Gray-New Gloucester High School in the spring of 2006, Stephanie Copp and Rachel Mayer sat in the audience with the rest of their peers while Maine comedian Bob Marley asked the students what they wanted to be when they grew up.

The now-married Copp, then Stephanie Googins, raised her hand and proudly answered, “Pharmacist!” She had known what she wanted to do since taking a personality test during her junior year.

Her friend Mayer, who grew up in Raymond off North Raymond Road, didn’t have as firm a grasp on her future plans, and Marley’s question got her thinking that she better contemplate her own career path.

“I remember that moment because I was like, what do I want to do?” Mayer said. “So it’s so funny we came from such totally different directions and now we’re both graduating together and we’ve been friends since the beginning.”

Fast forward to last weekend, and those two 2006 Gray-New Gloucester High School graduates were standing on the stage at the University of New England’s College of Pharmacy in Portland, receiving their doctorate of pharmacy degrees. After seven long and circuitous years of undergraduate and graduate work, in courses such as organic and medicinal chemistry, calculus and pharmacology, Mayer and Copp are full-fledged pharmacists, and part of the first class graduating from the school.

While neither can believe their hard work has finally paid off with a highly marketable degree, both are happy school is over and their careers as pharmacists can begin.

For Mayer, the route to finding her career path was a little more winding than Copp. After high school, Mayer, the 25-year-old daughter of Rhonda and Gregory Mayer of North Raymond Road in Raymond, contemplated studying dance at a school in North Carolina. She had reservations about moving that far from home and instead entered community college for liberal arts and worked part-time at Rite Aid pharmacy in Gray, where she became fascinated with pharmacy. After three years working on her prerequisites at the undergrad level, she applied in 2009 to enter the first class of the four-year graduate program at UNE’s pharmacy school.

“I have always wanted to do something in health care, and I guess I wasn’t sure exactly what that was,” Mayer said. “But I love people and I love interacting with people, but at the same time I’m very much into science and health. I’m very concerned with taking care of my own health and my own well being, so I think it’s the perfect fit.

“It’s the perfect balance of working with people and taking care of their health care, and having the opportunity to give them good advice about taking care of themselves, and promoting good health.”

Copp, also 25, has had a productive seven years, as well. She married Zachery Copp, had two children, Brayden, 3, and Barrett, 1, and somehow grappled with the demanding coursework all while working part-time at Rite Aid pharmacy in Gray.

“It was extremely difficult, especially since my husband was active duty in the Army the entire time I was in school,” said Copp, the daughter of Steve and Robin Googins of Yarmouth Road in Gray. “I had two children while doing pharmacy school, so I had my hands full on top of a very difficult program.”

The young women’s hard work and new credentials have already landed them jobs. Copp, who moved to Brunswick earlier this year when her husband retired from the military, will continue with Rite Aid, and soon will be assigned to manage a pharmacy in Rite Aid’s Central Maine region of stores.

“I’m not a city gal, and my ideal store would be a smaller customer base, because I’d like to get to know people on that personal level,” Copp said.

Mayer, who worked at Rite Aid and Hannaford pharmacies intermittently during school, has accepted a position at the Veterans’ Administration Medical Center at Togus near Augusta. She starts July 1.

“I really wanted to go to a smaller, more intimate hospital, and I’m really excited to work with the veterans of course. It’s just great to help take care of these amazing heroes, and I think it’ll be a great opportunity,” Mayer said.

Well prepared

Not all of the 100 or so who entered UNE’s pharmacy program in 2009 made it to last weekend’s graduation. The Gray-New Gloucester graduates said they found the program’s demands were challenging. And with few students from the Lakes Region in the program, they say it’s special they also graduated in the same high school class together.

“I think Gray prepared me very well for it,” Mayer said. “I’m definitely a true believer that school is what you make of it. I felt like I was very prepared for pharmacy school, but I was always a pretty motivated student.”

While Mayer attended elementary school in Raymond prior to enrolling at Gray-New Gloucester middle and high schools, Copp attended Gray schools throughout her childhood.

“My mom handpicked all my teachers growing up, and I had phenomenal teachers growing up in Gray, especially math and science teachers,” Copp said. “And I think that really laid a strong foundation and really helped me succeed in college in such a demanding program.”

Both are excited about their chosen career path, which is undergoing a major transition, Copp said. She said pharmacists of the future will be more involved with their customers’ overall wellness, a change both Mayer and Copp welcome. Among other changes, they say, pharmacies will become more involved in evaluating a patient’s medications to keep them out of the hospital, a boon to both the patients and insurance companies.

“Right now, customers come to the pharmacy and insurances and customers pay the pharmacy for a product: the medication,” Copp said. “But pharmacy is going to be changing. You’ll be paying for a service as opposed to the product. Pharmacists are going to do more than count pills and dispense medications.”

Gray native Stephanie Copp, left, and Rachel Mayer, of Raymond, graduated from University of New England’s College of Pharmacy last weekend. Both Copp and Mayer were in the class of 2006 at Gray-New Gloucester High School.
Courtesy photo