This past fall UNCW introduced a new program to its already impressive nursing school that makes UNCW one-of-a-kind in the state.

The clinical research program, headed by program coordinator Kris Terzotis and supported by international pharmaceutical giant PPD, is an innovative new major. UNCW and PPD embarked on this partnership because it is expensive for companies to train science graduates in clinical research.

“Graduates who graduate from UNCW will now be ahead of the game,” Terzotis said.

Students will take classes in chemistry, pharmacology, scientific writing and specialized areas of clinical research. These courses will prepare them for jobs in fields ranging from hands-on clinical trials of drugs to managerial positions in regulatory affairs.

“It’s really the perfect place for someone who wants to indirectly have an impact on humans but doesn’t want to be a doctor or an RN,” Terzotis said.

UNCW is the only public university in the UNC system that offers this major, making it a hub for students desiring to enter this field. Campbell University, a private institution, and Durham Technical Community College, a two-year college, are the only other schools in the state that offer qualifications in this field.

The major is not for the lazy. It is an intense four years of structured schedules and 60 hours of core requirements. The hard work pays off during the students’ senior year, however, when they earn their remaining hours through an internship, possibly at the PPD world headquarters here in Wilmington. From there, students have the opportunity to leap into careers that could take them anywhere.

“Students can go worldwide with this type of background,” Terzotis said.

The program, combined with PPD’s plan to bring thousands of new jobs to the Cape Fear region with their new riverfront office, could thrust UNCW ahead in the standings of other southern schools.

UNCW’s first group of students to enroll in clinical research consists of five young women who are taking the program by storm.

“I think the wide variety of job opportunities interested me,” said Caitlin O’Donnell, one of the first students to enter the program.

The program has already attracted students from outside the UNCW campus. Amanda Flinders, a UNCW graduate with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, returned to the university upon hearing about this program from a PPD coordinator.

“She told me the best thing that I could do to prepare myself for the clinical research industry was to enroll in the new clinical research program at UNCW,” Flinders said.

Flinders is excited about her prospects in clinical research. “I am looking into the possibility of working with a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon and his research team in upstate New York,” she said.

While underclassmen are enrolling in the prerequisite courses for the major, Terzotis is positive about the future of the program and its students.

“Our students are going to hit the ground running,” Terzotis said.