One of my favorite things to do as a student pharmacist and pharmacist intern is administering vaccines. Since 1997, APhA’s Operation Immunization has ensured that student pharmacists are trained to increase vaccines’ immensely positive impact on our society’s public health and our patients’ wellness. In the 2020–21 academic year alone, student pharmacists immunized more than 1.2 million patients. Vaccines are a brilliant source of technology, and it is an immense privilege that student pharmacists can be the conduit of that powerful technology to the general public.

At the 2022 APhA–ASP House of Delegates, student pharmacists celebrated the results of another successful Back the PAC campaign. This exciting annual competition challenges chapters across the nation to raise funds for the APhA Political Action Committee (APhA–PAC), a fund that supports pro-pharmacy candidates for federal office and educates student pharmacists on the importance of active political engagement.

Significant legal changes are occurring in the field of pharmacy, including the elimination of the Part III examination requirement to become a licensed pharmacist in the state of New York and pushes toward pharmacists gaining provider status. However, as a transfer student pharmacist at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS), I have felt as though I am lacking the knowledge that I need to be able to advocate for myself in the field of pharmacy. This is because throughout most of my education, I have not been around pharmacists and other student pharmacists, which would have allowed me to learn more about the impacts of legislation on the pharmacy profession.

APhA–ASP Operation Heart, to me, is a way to promote heart health and raise awareness of cardiovascular disease. I have always been interested in and passionate about cardiology, since it was a big part of my childhood. My dad, a cardiologist, introduced me to the field at a very young age with his patients and the cases that he would encounter. I also used to always find stents lying around all over his office and was curious about them. He is the reason I chose to run for the Operation Heart chair position and possibly pursue cardiology as a future career. He is also the reason why heart health is something I am very passionate about, and I want to advocate for its awareness.

The need for blood donations is common knowledge in the medical field and general public alike. Approximately 36,000 units of red blood cells are needed every day in the United States alone and are vital for a myriad of medical procedures and emergencies.¹ This is nothing to speak of the equally critical need for platelets; with only 3% of age-eligible people donating blood yearly,¹ the supply of available blood can be described as tenuous at best, even though blood transfusions are the most common medical procedure performed in hospitals.² It should, then, not be shocking that in the last year blood donation dwindled, resulting in a decrease in the backlog of available stored blood. While normally there is a week’s supply, many blood centers now have enough for just 1 or 2 days.³