What is IPSF?
The International Pharmaceutical Students' Federation was founded in 1949 by eight pharmacy student associations in London. The Federation now represents around 350,000 pharmacy students and recent graduates in 61 countries worldwide. IPSF is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-religious organization that aims to study and promote the interests of pharmacy students and encourage international co-operation amongst them. IPSF is proud to be the first international students' organization ever created.
The IPSF Website can be found at http://www.ipsf.org
Who runs the IPSF?
The IPSF holds official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), operational relations with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and works in close collaboration with the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP).
Despite these impressive working relationships, the IPSF remains a student volunteer-run organization-at both the international executive level and the local level at each of the member nations.
Executive members are not compensated for their work during their gruelling one-year terms of office and many consider it a labour of love and quite the honor to represent so many students around the world. Their work often involves extensive travel as the IPSF Secretariat is supported by the FIP in The Hague (in The Netherlands) and there are numerous annual conferences to attend in many different regions of the world. This of course leads to some amazing relationships and opportunities to see how pharmacy is practised around the world-something that most students would not experience without IPSF.
For more information about the structure of the IPSF, please visit the IPSF website:
http://www.ipsf.org
What is the relationship between the IPSF and CAPSI?
"CAPSI is a full member of the IPSF and shares and supports the Federation's vision and initiatives that focus on the areas of public health and pharmacy education. CAPSI members are automatically enrolled as members of the IPSF and are invited to participate in the numerous programs, projects, conferences, exchanges and other opportunities that IPSF can provide."
For a full list of the other nations that are full members, please visit the IPSF website:
http://www.ipsf.org and search by region under the Members tab.
I just graduated; can I still get involved with the IPSF?
Absolutely! The IPSF offers an individual membership for students up to four years after graduation. This allows a young pharmacist to attend conferences, participate in exchanges, promote healthy living initiatives in their communities, and perhaps most exciting of all, make international contacts and travel the world!
For information about becoming an international member once you have graduated and are no longer a CAPSI member, please visit http://www.ipsf.org.
What is PARO?
The Pan-American Regional Office, or PARO, consists of North and South America, including Central America and the Caribbean. The PARO Regional Working Group (PARO RWG) works as a team to promote IPSF participation in public health activities, professional activities, conferences, and student exchanges. In addition, the RWG produces a newsletter several times a year whose aim is to share information and success stories from among students in the region.
For more details, please click here
What does IPSF do?
IPSF is involved in a variety of aspects in pharmacy including:
- Development Fund
- Publications
- Public Health
- Professional Development
- Pharmacy Education
- Student Exchange
Click here to learn more
How do I get involved?
If you are...
...a student at a Canadian University, please visit the CAPSI executive page and contact your local representative. Each school has a student who has volunteered to be the IPSF contact person and they should be able to answer all your questions about the Student Exchange Program, the Public Healthy initiatives, the conferences and whatever else you may be wondering about.
....an international student with questions about IPSF in Canada, please visit the CAPSI executive page and contact either the IPSF Liaison or the Student Exchange Officer with any questions you may have
....a pharmacist working in Canada who is interested in being involved with the Student Exchange Program, please contact the CAPSI Student Exchange Officer, IPSF Liaison or Local Rep from the school nearest to you with any questions you may have.
Events
For a crash course in all that the IPSF does (and not to mention an amazing vacation!), the best thing to do is attend the IPSF World Congress, held each year in July or August.
IPSF ANNUAL CONGRESS
Past conferences have been hosted in Singapore (2003), Halifax (2004), Bonn, Germany (2005) Cairns, Australia (2006), Taiwan (2007), Romania (2008) and Bali (2009). Future congresses will be held in Lbjljana, Slovenia (2010), and Thailand (2011).
For more information on the upcoming 56th World Congress 2010 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, visit http://www.ipsf2010.org/, and view the promotional video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zhLVESJUKQ
In addition to the IPSF World Congress, there are numerous international congresses open to students, including (but not limited to!):
-
69th FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
- World Health Care Student Symposium
Location: Alexandria, Egypt
55th IPSF World Congress Photo Album
Internships
Every year, IPSF opens a possibility for members to participate in IPSF work at a higher level through an internship at IPSF Headquarter. It is co-located at International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Office in The Hague, The Netherlands.
As an intern, you may learn how it feels to work at a global health organization.
Task for the positions include:
- Compilation of reports and documents for the IPSF Congress
- Communication with members and external contacts (email, phone, fax, mail)
- Contacts updates
- Assisting the executive according to needs of the federation and interests of the intern
- Taking part in the 'IPSF history book' project
Conditions of the internship:
- Time between April-July (a little flexibility according to the availability).
- Length of internship between 1-2 months.
- Accommodation provided at the IPSF apartment
- Office space provided by IPSF, including equipment and office supplies
- Supervised by the IPSF executive
- Transportation, visa application and food covered by the intern
- No pocket money provided
- Letter of invitation to apply visa will be provided
- Application process: As part of your application please submit
- Curriculum Vitae
- Motivation letter. Please include the reason why you apply, and your desired time and length of internship.
- Letter of support from your students' organisation (please note that only IPSF members are eligible to join this project)
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