WellDyne offers boost to Polk students' careers

A group of students at Fort Meade Middle-Senior High School may have seen their future. They recently took a class trip to WellDyne, a mail-order pharmacy and medical management firm in northwest Polk County.

What they saw there was pharmacy technicians at work. It made a pretty big impression. After the trip, the number of students signed up for the school's new "Academy of Pharmacy Technicians" tripled.

The trip helped Zachary Taylor, who is 16 years old, set a goal. He wants to work at WellDyne.

"What would you like to be doing there?" FOX 13 asked.

"Sales, so I could represent the company, then eventually move up," he said. "Run it, maybe."

The new academy is going to make is easier for any student in Polk County to become a pharmacy tech. It is a joint venture between WellDyne and Fort Meade Middle-Senior.

Students who enroll will take a pharmacy technician course as an elective , along with their regular courses. When they graduate, they will be qualified to get a job immediately, or go on to college, possibly using their certification as a stepping stone for a degree in a related field.

Welldyne is helping to set the curriculum. It will also will pay an instructor to teach the course, and plans to develop internships for advanced students.

"They're into this wholeheartedly, just as much as we are," Amy Hardee, the school's assistant principal, told FOX 13.

Classes begin in the fall.