Recently, at our annual APhA Academies Leadership Meeting (ALM), a noteworthy toast was given by this year’s President of the APhA Academy of Student Pharmacists, Nicholas Capote of the University of Tennessee. I wasn’t the only one who was impressed. Pharmacy Today Editor L. Michael Posey used his May editorial to print Nick’s toast.

ALM is a gathering of APhA volunteers and staff to begin planning for APhA2015 in San Diego, for which the theme is “Advancing As One.” At ALM, we frame our education curriculum and House of Delegates topics for the year.

Here, for readers of my blog, we’re reprinting Nick’s very special toast.
 

As I head back to Memphis after each business meeting, there is a Washington, DC, place I tell people about. It is a special place on the National Mall that sits amongst towering monuments and memorials to some of the greatest leaders ever known.

However, this place is more than shiny elevators, granite steps, and a nice view from the Potomac View Terrace—it is a home. The home of American pharmacy lives there at APhA headquarters, within those walls, and within each of us. This place is considered a home because it is commonly filled with our leaders from the Academy of Pharmacy Practice & Management, the Academy of Pharmaceutical Research & Science, and the Academy of Student Pharmacists.

In other words, this place is considered a home because it is filled with a family.

We are a family driven toward the common mission of promoting consumer access and coverage for pharmacists’ quality patient care services—a goal that is simple enough to articulate but requires much thought between our three Academies before we step forward every year as a united front. Let’s work to move forward from ALM this year, united stronger than ever before. We must, not only because of key legislation in motion, but because our profession depends upon our efforts, and because our patients deserve it.

I am so proud to lead our members into the student academy’s 45th year. To all of the students present this afternoon: do not miss the opportunity to get to know the practitioners around you, for these are the individuals who have dedicated their careers to leaving this profession better than they found it, all of whom started in your shoes. To the pharmacists present this afternoon, do not miss the opportunity to meet the rising stars of pharmacy, because these students and all of their ambition are the bright future of this profession.

May our journey this year be fruitful as we look to where we came from for inspiration, to where we are going for hope, and to where our feet are now, firmly planted in the present, as we progress together to improve medication use and advance patient care. Cheers!
 

Cheers indeed! Thanks, Nick! And thank you to all the volunteer leaders who invested their time so our entire membership could benefit.