Pharmacy is a Family Tradition

Tony Cornetta PharmD ’29 is happily following in his family’s footsteps. His great grandparents were pharmacists and bought a pharmacy in Abington, Massachusetts, in 1960. His grandfather and then his mother continued to run the business until it closed in 2021. Now it’s his turn to enter the profession.

“I was exposed at a young age to what pharmacy really was and my family’s contribution to the community stood out to me as something I would love to do in the future,” said Cornetta. “I toured URI and I loved the campus and sense of community everyone had. I also did lots of research on colleges of pharmacies online and URI always stood out to me.”

Since arriving, Cornetta has been impressed with the overwhelming amount of support from peers and professors. He’s also discovered a surprising array of opportunities for jobs and internships, student organizations, or connecting with mentors in the field.

“These experiences have helped me academically and also strengthened my confidence in my future career path,” he said. “The scholarship I received enables me to take advantage of these opportunities while earning the education I’ve always dreamed of. It definitely eased the financial stress on my family.”

He’s very active with the Kappa Psi pharmaceutical fraternity, and serves with Pharmbassadors, a student group that helps with welcome days, shadow tours, and other recruiting efforts for the College of Pharmacy.

“For my service learning, I volunteered at a summer camp kids with diabetes,” he said. “The college introduced to this camp and I got to see what living with diabetes was really like. This summer I have an internship at CVS and I am very excited about it.”

Cornetta hopes to apply to the PharmD/MBA program next year.

“Currently I am still figuring out what I want to do after graduation, but I am really interested in the clinical aspect of pharmacy and I think I want to work in a hospital,” he said. “URI has done a great job exposing me to all the different areas of pharmacy practice.”

If his great grandparents could see him now…