Students provide sweet incentive for learning about flu vaccine KINGSTON, R.I. — May 1, 2001 — The University of Rhode Island’s members of The Academy of Students of Pharmacy captured first place in the 2001 Operation Immunization Northeast Region competition. The awards ceremonies, held in San Francisco, were part of the American Pharmaceutical Association’s campaign to make communities aware of immunization information, as well as inform the students about their roles as pharmacists. URI pharmacy students did their outreach project on the influenza vaccine. The 22 students involved with the project collected facts about the flu beginning in November. They then created information sheets and attached them to lollipops. The students distributed the lollipops to different pharmacies in Rhode Island communities and helped at flu clinics. Helping out at flu clinics proved to be no easy task since there was a flu vaccine shortage. In more than 30 states in the U.S., pharmacists are able to give patients immunization shots, but in Rhode Island and other New England states, pharmacists cannot. “Helping at the flu clinics was the difficult part of this project because they (clinics) kept getting cancelled due to the vaccine shortage. However, we were still able to make an impact by reaching out to the community with information about the flu, ” said Samantha Cotter of Dracut, Mass., president of URI’s Academy of Students of Pharmacy. The URI chapter, comprised of 54 pharmacy majors, is the student division of the American Pharmaceutical Association, the largest professional association of pharmacists in the United States. The group participates in community service, and enlists speakers to promote the pharmacy profession. For Information: Samantha Cotter 782-8338, Dave Lavallee 874-2116