Ramon Ulmar remembers how fellow black students teased him because he was a scholarly bookworm. But, Ulmar stayed focus on his academic dreams.
Now the 1994 Omaha Northwest High School graduate has his Pharm.D. degree from UNMC’s College of Pharmacy.
“I was definitely a nerd kind of guy and my peers were pretty hard on me, although playing sports eventually increased my overall acceptance,” Ulmar said. “From middle school through my sophomore year, cracking the books and being smart in class just wasn’t the popular thing to do. In particular, whenever a teacher complimented me because I’d done my homework and knew the material with a superior level of comprehension, sooner or later students would start calling me teacher’s pet and say I’m trying to be white.”
Fortunately, his parents, Rodger Ulmar and Patricia Ulmar-Stewart, pushed him and made his success in school the guiding principle for their trust and faith in him. He couldn’t hang out with friends unless he’d done his homework and maintained excellent grades. The better he did in school, the more freedom he was given as a teen-ager to go places on his own and stay out later. It also didn’t hurt that his best friend in high school was Gerald Lee — eventually the class valedictorian — who reminded Ulmar that being smart was cool all by itself.
“During the last few years, I’ve spoken to groups of middle and high school students,” Ulmar said. “I relate well to these kids because, unlike a lot of adults who spoke to us when I was a teen-ager, I never forget just how much influence peer pressure has on a student. Thanks to my relationship with the Lord, my parents and some like-minded close friends, I could hold on to the self-esteem I needed to keep pushing in the face of social hazing and disrespect. Most kids can’t resist the pressure that may come from being surrounded by other kids who are pretty negative toward cracking the books.”
Ulmar attended Springview Elementary and Nathan Hale Junior High and always enjoyed math and science. In 1992, as a high school sophomore, he attended a summer internship program at the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases. The experience opened Ulmar’s eyes to what he could do with his brain. He went on to excel in high school and chose Baylor University in Texas for undergraduate school.
Ulmar had met Mary McNamee, Ph.D., director of UNMC’s Office of Student Equity and Multicultural Affairs, during one of her many recruiting presentations at Northwest. She kept in touch with him and encouraged him to attend a summer workshop at UNMC on health science professions after his freshman year at Baylor. That workshop influenced him to pursue a career in pharmacy. He did three years of pre-requisite courses at Baylor and returned to Omaha in 1997 to begin pharmacy school.
“I not only liked science and math, but I always liked dealing with people,” Ulmar said. “I learned that a pharmacy career can go in a lot of directions, not just to the corner drugstore. There’s nuclear pharmacy, pharmaceutical sales, hospital/clinical pharmacy — many areas.”
Ulmar has not selected a specialized area yet. He’s worked in research labs, as well as worked weekends for Walgreen’s on a program that rotates him through many local stores.
Ulmar, who served three years as the COP representative to the UNMC Student Senate, praises the COP faculty and staff for their continuous support.
Today, with the support of his wife, Lisa, a registered nurse who graduated from UNMC’s College of Nursing in 1999, Ulmar is preparing for his national pharmacist board exams and national law exams.