A Six Figure Pharmacist Salary Just Got More Affordable And Easier to Access for Okaloosa County

In Brief:

Northwest Florida State College (NWFSC) and Florida A&M University (FAMU) signed an agreement allowing students to transfer from NWFSC to FAMU’s Crestview Pharmacy Campus to pursue a Doctor of Pharmacy degree.
The partnership provides students with affordable housing options at NWFSC, addressing housing concerns and facilitating smoother transitions to higher education.
Leaders like Dr. G. Devin Stephenson, Dr. Allyson Watson, and Dr. Johnnie Early highlighted the agreement’s potential to enhance educational opportunities and community impact in Okaloosa County.

With a stroke of a pen, high school students can become doctors of Pharmacy, all while staying in Okaloosa County, which has one of the most affordable tuition and housing situations in the state.

Northwest Florida State College (NWFSC) and Florida A&M University

(FAMU) signed an agreement at FAMU’s Crestview Pharmacy Campus allowing students who complete two years at Northwest Florida State College to immediately transfer over to the Rural Pharmacy Education Campus in Crestview.

As part of the agreement, NWFSC will send students who are ready to start their pharmacological journey while still being eligible for student housing at Northwest Florida State College—relieving a significant burden associated with the lack of affordable housing inventory for students – and everyone else. Dr. G. Devin Stephenson, the outgoing President of Northwest Florida State College, hopes to swell the ranks of students enrolled at the pharmacy college in Crestview to between 30 and 40 per class with this agreement.

“The two-plus-four articulation agreement between Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and Northwest Florida State College is indicative of the success that will come to this area,” said Dr. Allyson Watson, the Provost of Florida A&M, ” Today’s ceremony marks a defining moment in our educational landscape.”

State Representative Patt Maney called the building and the school a “real jewel” of the community and talked about the above-average pass rates for the students who graduate from the FAMU School of Pharmacy—as well as the diverse student body the school attracts.

Dr. Johnnie Early, II, the Dean of The FAMU College of Pharmacy, reminded the crowd of an Ashanti Proverb which says, in part, “A wood already touched by fire is not hard to set alight.” He believes the wood touched by the fire of knowledge shipped up from Niceville to the Crestview Pharmacy Campus has great potential to create a strong fire for the future of the School of Pharmacy at FAMU and the community.