You don't have to be a PA to show up for the profession.

Leslie Lawton is a dietitian and a pre-PA, and she joined her state PA association long before she had any letters after her name that said she belonged there. It changed everything about how she understands this career.

Most state societies welcome pre-PA members, and almost nobody takes them up on it. Leslie did, and she ended up with real relationships with practicing PAs, a front-row seat to the legislative issues affecting the profession, and a line on her application that meant something because she actually did the work.

Her point that stuck with me: don't just pay dues. Volunteer. That's where the connections happen.

What we cover:

• Joining your state PA society as a pre-PA
• Why advocacy matters for this profession
• Building relationships with practicing PAs
• Volunteering versus just paying membership dues
• What Leslie's dietitian background brings to her path
• How involvement strengthened her understanding of the field

Resources:

Free Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

Free Resume Download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

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Have you ever thought about getting involved in your state PA society but been like, maybe not.

I'm just a Pre pa. Well, Leslie is on the podcast today to tell you why you should get involved and how that's helped her in her Pre PA journey.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

I want to thank mypa Resource and PA School Prep for sponsoring the Pre PA Club Podcast.

So mypa Resource is a personal statement editing service that edits only PA school essays, only edited by PAs and most of us have admissions experience, so I am one of the editors.

Definitely check them out if you need help with your content grammar flow, making sure that you are on track for turning in your application and you can use the code futurepa for a discount on any of their service options.

PA School Prep is an online course that focuses on the anatomy, physiology and med terms that you'll need for PA school to make sure you feel confident going into that first semester and that you are able to handle what PA school throws at you.

So check that [email protected] and also use the code futurepa for a discount there.

Hey guys, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for listening and tuning in.

I am really excited to have an awesome guest for you today, a fellow Pre PA that we're going to hear from who is sharing her insights into some things that she's doing to both help herself learn more about the PA profession, make connections with PAS and advocate for the profession all at the same time.

So you're going to hear from Leslie.

She is currently a dietitian but she is working towards applying to PA School and she's been able to get involved with her state PA society.

So really cool stuff that you'll get to hear from her today.

I wanted to let you guys know that our next Day in the Life Virtual Shadowing event will be on October 8th at 8pm Eastern and we'll be talking to Kristen.

She is awesome.

She is a critical care and pulmonology PA and she also does a lot to help people with finances so we can talk about some money stuff.

You're actually going to hear from her on the podcast next month about more stuff having to do with financial things and paying for PA school.

But on the 8th we're going to be talking mainly about her job and she works nights.

She has a really unique schedule, does some really cool stuff And I'm really excited about it.

So that link to sign up for that is in the description.

I'll be posting on social media.

If you don't follow along, I'm at the PA platform on Instagram, so be on the lookout for that.

It's free for you to watch and ask your questions.

I'll also be posting ahead of time to get some questions for that for Kristen.

Um, but it should be fun, I think.

Last time we had about 500 people at our virtual shadowing event, so that was really cool.

All right, I'll jump into letting you guys hear from Leslie, and as always, I'm here for you.

You know, if you have any questions, reach out on social media, shoot me an email.

Any ideas for the podcast?

We're gonna have a Q and A episode coming up very soon.

If you didn't know, you can send in a voicemail question.

The link is in the description.

So if you would like to leave us a voicemail, go for it.

And we will be happy to answer that.

All right, let's hear from Leslie so you guys can get to know her and get some ideas of how you can get involved.

Okay.

So it's such a pleasure to meet you, Savannah.

I want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to chat with you and your audience today.

It's very exciting.

My name is Leslie Lawton, and I am a registered dietitian, diabetes career and education specialist, and I'm also board certified in sports dietetics.

So those are all kind of disciplines that I practice in.

And I have been really excited to get interested in the PA profession probably over the past year, and as part of my journey that included getting involved with my local state association.

And I just.

I'm excited to share, you know, just how much I think that can inform, you know, our future PAs, as well as, you know, they can serve to.

To be advocates, you know, for their own profession.

So.

Yeah, no, I completely agree.

So I'm excited to hear about that as well.

So are you.

Are you switching to the PA route, or you just love PAs?

Okay.

Yeah.

You know, I was doing a lot of reflection, you know, before this discussion, and it's kind of funny because the first exposure I ever had to a PA was when I was working as a student in food service over one of the summers during undergrad.

And the assistant food service director was a dietitian who is very, very straightforward as she was going to be pursuing the PA profession.

And I really didn't think anything of it at the time because I was committed to going to school for dietetics, and I didn't even really know what a PA was, you know, honestly, at that point in time.

So that was my first introduction, you know, to the PA profession.

And it wasn't until Savannah that I was treated by a PA myself as a patient that it really woke me up to just the fantastic providers that they are.

And, you know, this past year is really, it's really informed me about, you know, how different disciplines can be so complementary, you know, of the PA profession.

And it makes a lot of sense that you have to have some sort of healthcare background, you know, before you become a PA, just because of the general's capacity that, you know, PAs are trained in and work in for the most part, and how much, you know, that can inform your profession, you know, as a PA as well.

Yeah, I mean, it's a great.

I think it's just a great profession partly because everyone comes from different backgrounds.

And that was something I saw in my class.

And we actually had a dietitian in my class.

So, I mean, she had so much great knowledge to share with us from her.

She had been working for a long time, and so from her years of experience, it benefited all of us as a class and as students.

So that was really cool.

Well, I want to.

So can you explain kind of how you got into dietetics?

Like what drew you to becoming a dietitian and what that path kind of looks like for anyone who may not know?

Sure.

Okay, that's a new.

That's definitely evolved since I was in school.

There's two different routes that people could have historically gone as they were pursuing the dietetics field.

And I went through something called.

It was an advanced level or advanced PACE program.

It was a coordinated program.

And I think There was only 12 programs that existed in the whole US when I was a student, and I think there's way fewer now.

But basically it's kind of like those PAs who go the three plus two route.

Instead of taking five years to get through school to become a dietitian, we actually had our clinical and our didactic take care take place simultaneously.

So we got everything done in four years, which was a challenge, say otherwise, but basically, for anybody who's interested in pursuing the nutrition profession, you certainly want to make sure that you're going to an accredited school.

And something else that's really important to know is it is very difficult to find internships for that clinical experience.

I have a student that I'm supposed to be precepting this time next year, and she essentially has been responsible for finding her own internship.

And, you know, it's definitely an undertaking.

And that's honestly why the coordinated program appealed to me, probably for some of the reason.

Similar reasons that 3, 2 apply to PAS.

I knew my internship was baked in to my program.

I wasn't going to have to compete with anybody else.

And we still had to interview to get into the latter part of our program.

But I knew it was baked in and, you know, again, it was.

It was really difficult.

But on the same token, I can appreciate to a small degree the intensity that PAs must undertake going to school, trying to cover both didactic and clinical coursework in such a short span of time.

Yes, it's very, very similar.

Very quick, is there a difference in a nutritionist and a dietitian?

Absolutely.

That's a great question.

I mean, so it kind of depends where you practice.

Kind of like PAs as well.

But in the state of Pennsylvania, where I practice as a dietitian, we are licensed as both our credentials are LDN, so we are RDS registered dietitian.

And then we are also LDNs.

And that licensure stands for licensed Dietitian Nutritionist.

And it varies from state to state.

I feel like our licensure changed over time to include nutritionists because honestly, that that term, I think is more recognizable to people over, you know, dietitian.

But from the perspective of a nutritionist, you don't necessarily, if you are a nutritionist, you don't necessarily.

You haven't necessarily had healthcare training and gone through your internship, and you haven't sat for your boards and obtained the registered dietitian credential.

And so really kind of anybody could call themselves a nutritionist.

But the credentialing, you obviously have to go a different route.

Okay, so what is a day in your just like a normal day in your job look like right now?

Working as a dietitian?

Sure.

So I kind of work in a unique setting.

I work in a wellness center.

And our medical directors have kind of shifted over the years that I've been there.

We had a neurologist as our medical director, we had a nephrologist as our medical director, and now we have a psychiatrist as our medical director.

And we've always had.

We've always worked under the same roof as therapists.

We have a bunch of counselors.

And a neuropsychiatrist as well.

That works in our building.

So we, well, we as dietitians will see patients.

Probably 50% of our patients have diabetes and then the other 50% run the spectrum from infancy to geriatrics.

And every diagnosis you can possibly imagine, that's nutrition related in between.

So that's kind of the split as far as what our days look like.

We are really privileged to be able to spend about an hour with our patients for our initial visits.

So privileged.

Honestly, that's one of the biggest reservations I find in my heart about the PA profession.

I know you don't necessarily have that amount of time to spend with your patients that.

So I know I'm really spoiled.

But we spend typically an hour with our patients, I guess.

On the contrary, I just saw a gentleman yesterday whose insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor we got started and that was a three hour visit because it is quite the process to get through it.

So that's probably the longest visit I would ever have.

And also maybe a 30 minute follow up would be the shortest.

Wow, interesting.

Okay.

A long time ago I interviewed a pa.

Her name's, her Instagram name is Medical Maven, and she's a geriatric pa. And so it was really interesting talking to her because she has very long visits.

Like her visits are 30 minutes to an hour.

And so she doesn't see a ton of patients every day, but they're like very, very personal visits.

Very, you know, she has lots of time to go over a lot of stuff, which I thought was really interesting.

Yeah.

And honestly, that was something that was really interesting to me because I know to a degree how spoiled I am.

When I was shadowing pas, it was interesting to see the difference in time, you know, so for behavioral health, you know, they might spend an hour for their initial assessment and, you know, maybe not so much in, you know, family practice.

So that was interesting for me to notice as well.

To your point, how much it can vary.

Yeah, definitely.

Okay, so you've decided that you want to go to PA school.

Where are you at in that process?

So I am working, I am plugging away at my prerequisites right now.

That's probably the biggest thing I'm undertaking.

I have, you know, peeked around in CASPA just to kind of get familiar with what I'm going to be doing in the future.

And honestly, to get through all my prerequisites, it's probably going to take me a good two and a half to three years, you know, to get through all of that, because that was something that was interesting to me as well as far as the dietetics pathway is concerned, as I was researching so schools, there are a lot of prerequisites that match what you have to be educated in, you know, to become a dietitian.

Anatomy and physiology, chemistry, 1 and 2, biochemistry, statistics, psychology.

So depending on the school, of course, that you're applying to.

I was actually excited, you know, to see that a lot of the background, you know, of a dietitian is maybe so translatable to the pathway of a pa. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

It should be.

All right, so I want to talk.

So when you originally reached out, it was because you have kind of, I guess, found this new passion for helping out in your state society.

What does that look like?

Just tell us a little bit about what your role is, how you got involved with all that.

Yeah, so I guess I didn't really 100% answer one of the questions you asked earlier, which is what got you into the field of dietetics.

Headaches and, you know, it was actually through the failure and restoration of my own health, like so many other, you know, PAs that I've heard of.

And I had decided, you know, I'll be.

I'll be fully candid.

I actually, at the age of 13, you know, suffered from anorexia neurosa.

And after I had recovered from that, I was so committed to, you know, protecting the health of my future patients.

And in retrospect, you know, I really wanted to advocate, you know, for them.

And so I think that's really informed my pathway just from a professional, you know, perspective, a patient perspective.

And it's, you know, I mean, it's just baked into being a PA or really any health professional.

But advocacy is definitely in my heart.

And so I had the pleasure of being invited to my student State Dietetic association to serve in a number of roles.

And that made me realize how very much you can learn, you know, from your state associations, as well as how much they need you, honestly, as not just a financial supporter, but potentially, you know, a volunteer as well.

Okay, yeah, that's a lot.

So, yeah, you sound like just like a natural born, like, advocate.

Like, yeah, it's definitely more I just sit and reflect the more.

I just know it's just built into my DNA.

And I feel like I advocate for my patients every day.

You know, I believe in advocating for my profession.

It's definitely I advocate for, you know, working in a collaborative capacity.

It's definitely something that is just part of my DNA and That's a great thing.

Okay, so you had experience working with your dietetic society.

So what were you.

I mean, I don't know.

When I have ideas, usually I'm just sitting there and I'm like, maybe I should, maybe I should just check into that real quick.

And I end up going down a rabbit hole and who knows where I'll end up?

But what was your thought process and steps for kind of thinking like, I wonder if I could help out with the PA society?

Yeah.

So honestly, it goes back to, to serving my current professions, you know, state, you know, association.

And actually I worked at the very local level.

So it was, it was a level down, actually from the state.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, so it was even more, you know, more of a microscopic, you know, part of the state.

And, you know, so during this discussion, it's really important to me to do what my colleagues at the time did for me, which was to invite me to even serve, you know, at that level.

And so I'm going to invite, invite all of you who are listening not only to financially support your state associations, but I'm going to invite you to pursue what ways you can potentially support in a volunteer capacity.

So they actually, one of my co workers just asked, hey, would you be the nominating chair?

We need a nominating chair.

Would you do that?

And I agreed.

And kind of funny, because as I was doing that, our membership chair stepped down.

And so then I found myself being the membership chair and the nominating chair.

Honestly, the nominating chair was good, but it really wasn't.

It was okay.

But once I stepped into the membership chair role, I found that I just loved networking with all of the professionals, you know, in my association.

And it was just such a great way to network, and I absolutely loved it.

And it was at that point in time that I served for probably six or seven years in that role.

And I learned two things.

I learned how much I loved membership, and I also learned how much your associations need you to serve them.

You know, it's not the most glamorous thing in the world.

Nobody's getting paid.

You're not necessarily getting any direct recognition.

But I'm going to tell you, one of the girls I worked with, one of the dietitians, found a job, you know, after she had unfortunately lost her, you know, previous job.

She found her dream job by being part of that association.

I was asked to do public speaking through that role.

I actually, I'm not trying to brag here, I would never have done this on my own, but one of the dietitians had nominated me when I was young enough, I'm not anymore, to for, in a word, for the same state which was the recognized Young Dietitian of the Year award.

And I got it.

But I never, Savannah would have had that opportunity.

I wouldn't have applied for that.

I would never have gone after it.

I mean, that's the other thing.

I think your state associations are a real opportunity, not only for you to advocate, you know, for your state and all that entails, but also to find, you know, advocates for you.

Maybe, maybe you'll find somebody who can get you a job or who could offer you a shadowing opportunity or get you tips for.

About a specific school or be a mentor, you know, for that matter.

So not only is it, not only do I see it as an avenue to advocate for your profession, but I think it's a great way to almost advocate for yourself, which any of us who work in health care.

I'm just going to put it out there.

It's super important to know how to advocate for yourself, you know, in the healthcare field.

It is.

Oh yeah, I can completely agree.

There's lots of areas where we have to step up for ourselves, our patients, all of those things.

So what?

So it sounds like in that, like in that situation you kind of had a connection to, you know, get, get into that society.

How have you, I think you said for the past year you've been working with the PA society.

How did that come to be?

Yeah, so once I really started this journey of learning more about the PA profession, one of the things that I expected of myself was to go join AAPA and to go join my state PA association.

And, you know, membership was something that I just love so much.

I thought, you know what, I'm just going to reach out and see if they need any help on the membership committee.

And lo and behold, you know, the membership chair reached back out to me and said, oh, we'd love to have you.

And I have just gotten to learn so much about, you know, the PA profession, you know, just as well as the actual association itself, you know, through that volunteer opportunity.

So you have nothing to lose by asking if there's any way that you can pitch in and membership.

You know, it was really easy for me to pursue membership because I've already had experience in it and I really love it.

You know, but if you like history, there's probably a history committee you could ask to volunteer on or, you know, maybe they have an annual conference and they need to help.

They need help Getting, you know, I don't know, people to sign in or something of that nature.

So, you know, there's never a shortage of need for volunteers ever.

No.

How did you just, like, find their information online and like, send a blind email and.

Yeah, so I, I think it works different for every state.

And, you know, I went to the website and I believe there was a place that indicated your interest in membership or interest in joining the association and any desire, you know, to volunteer.

You know, our newsletter that we get in in paper form actually has the list of every single committee.

And some of the state associations, I believe, have that available, you know, on their website.

And so you could probably just look and see if there's a committee that you're super interested in and just reach out to the association and, you know, hey, do you need any volunteers?

I don't think it could hurt.

Yeah, I don't think so either.

I've heard some.

Some state societies are more pre PA friendly than others, but I think it's.

It's not gonna hurt to ask at all.

Yeah, you know, I think that they are.

I will say Pennsylvania seems to be pretty PPA friendly.

I want to say that we have about 85, you know, pa members.

So this is something else you want to check out on your website.

It only costs $15 to be a pre PA member.

What?

I mean, yeah, I think they're very prepa friendly.

I know too, though, you know, through the Facebook group that's associated with your platform.

Isn't there something like 11,000 members?

I mean, there's some.

So what that tells me, if you do the math, there's probably, I mean, equally distributed, 250 pre PAs, at least, you know, in every single state.

Whoa.

I mean, imagine if we had that much membership in our, you know, PA societies.

So at the end of the day, you can join.

I have no doubt that you can join your state association as to whether or not they'll love, you know, having volunteers.

I don't think you have anything to lose, you know, by asking.

No, definitely can ask for sure.

So.

And that's.

Yeah.

So I wish more.

More of them were like, very pre PA friendly.

And that's where.

So, like, I don't think Georgia has a pre PA option.

Option.

Okay, we'll check.

Unless they've added.

I kind of talked to them about it at one point, but they.

I don't know if they've ever, ever added it.

So I'm not sure.

There usually is, like, maybe some sort of affiliate membership for non, you know, maybe PAs.

Right.

But that's generally not the most cost.

Think and George's is, I think, really expensive.

I think you know what, and if you find that there's a state that's more friendly, you know, for your cost, you don't have to join in your state.

Yeah, there you go.

Or what I tell people is look at the state, look at the state that you live in, look at the state you want to practice in and look at the states where you're applying to school and kind of look, look at all of them and see what I mean, see how PA friendly the state is and look at their state society and try to, you know, see what's going on, what they're working on.

Yeah, the legislation piece is super important to know about.

And I'm going to tell you right now, as a dietitian, that's definitely something you need to be aware of, you know, with your future discipline in particular in the state you're going to practice in.

Because there is federal, you know, legislation, but ultimately at the end of the day your state.

Yeah, that's definitely the most important part.

So in what would you say like your time commitment is, does it vary or are there certain things you do?

So right now the capacity that I serve in is really to work on membership renewals for people who have not renewed their membership and we use different platforms to work on that.

So the other thing that I've learned is just different communication platforms like vistaprint or Constant Contact or you know, and there's, there's definitely our social media, you know, committee as well that uses, you know, the content that we come up with.

But we pretty much have been working on email and you know, some, you know, electronic like Constant Contact platforms as well as snail mail, like old fashioned snail mail, you know, as well.

So I've got an exposure to vistaprint and Constant Contact, for instance, that I've never ever used before and so certainly informed me in that, you know, capacity as well.

Yeah, learn new skills.

You may not know the answer to this question.

I asked somebody, I don't remember who, I don't know if it was Cooper or who it was, but somebody with aapa, maybe it was my state delegate.

Anyway, we were talking about whether pre PA memberships count like in the state Society the same as PA memberships because the AAPA voting is based on how many PA members you have.

But like I could never find or get a clear answer whether the pre PA memberships were part of that or if it was just those like practicing PA Ones.

I don't know if that's ever come up.

Yeah, that's a good question.

So I think what you're asking is, does the representation that you have in your state that is dictated by your membership include, you know, pre pas, Right?

Yeah.

Because I know the voting is based on the amount of members that's.

We are at a.

So like in Georgia, we have gapa and then we have our regional, you know, little meeting.

So I'll go to dinners that are.

I used to pre Covid that were just, you know, our.

Our little area of gapa.

And so that was one thing they talked about.

Like, guys, it's really important you're a member because that gives us more votes in the House of Delegates at aapa.

But we just could never.

And I think, I think it was the delegate there, Tammy Pavey, and she was going to ask or try to find out if pre PA members counted or not, because we were.

It just wasn't clear like, who.

I'm sure it's like, written in some long thing somewhere that we just don't know where to find.

You know what?

That's a great question.

I'll have to ask, you know, our association, and I don't know, I wouldn't think necessarily that that varies state to state to state, but that's a good question.

I'll have to check in.

Yeah, it just like, crossed my mind, like, I never got an answer for that maybe, you know, but whenever I, whenever I was talking to Cooper Couch and we talked about this a little bit before, but he, he just finished up as his year as student president of the aapa, and his, his tip was get involved with your state.

Like, yeah, it's great to get involved with aapa, too, but your state is where things are happening and, like, they need you.

And so that was, it's interesting because that was kind of his advice as well.

Yeah.

And I mean, just to elaborate on that at the.

Okay.

So something that I learned again, you know, through my state association, I am no history buff, nor am I a legislation buff by any stretch of the imagination, but through our history chair, I learned that something called.

So basically, up until that point in time, PAS could only be reimbursed by their services through Medicare if they Worked in rural health clinics.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So not a lot of reimbursement.

And again, if you've worked in healthcare, reimbursement can really dictate a lot of your maybe value to your organization or how you can find jobs, you know, for that matter.

Yeah.

So over a 10 year period, that's when the PA profession saw a 140% increase in the number of PAs that were practicing.

And so when people say, oh my gosh, I never knew what a PA was, well, probably a lot of that had to do with how PAs were being reimbursed and being sought after.

And I think that there was actually kind of a decline going on in the PA profession as far as student enrollment was concerned, you know, before that legislation, you know, was enacted.

So there is a significant thing that happened at the federal level and of course what we do, and I know this from dietetics, what Medicare reimburses is generally followed up by what our private insurances will reimburse.

Right.

Which obviously varies widely from state to state, but from the local level.

Okay.

So in pa, so we have our state osteopathic board and our state medical board that are responsible for PA licensure in the state.

And it's my understanding that there is a rotating seat for a non physician and that rotating seat may or may not be held by a physician assistant.

And so one of the pieces of legislation that they're attempting to pass in Pennsylvania is a permanent seat for a PA on those lace.

Right.

What's that?

I don't know that quote, if you're not at the table, then, you know, you're on the menu or something.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know what it is exactly, but the point is it's really to your advantage to have, here's that advocacy coming up again, you know, have representation.

And what's another piece of legislation they're working on?

I think that they're working on counter signatures and the requirements with respect to, to counter signatures.

And then there's another piece of legislation that pertains to ratios, like physician to PA ratios, you know, how many PAs, you know, can, can have a ratio, you know, to a physician.

So I think those are the primary pieces of legislation and again, never would have known about those unless I had, you know, been.

Been volunteering.

So.

Yeah, and you have like much more insight than I think you get just reading about it very generally because some of that stuff can be very hard to follow or hard to comprehend.

And you kind of just answered my next question, which was.

And really more just a point I was going to make is that I think.

And even as PAs, this comes up in the PA Facebook groups a lot where everyone likes to argue.

But I think when you look at a membership, you see, you know, this costs $300.

Like, that's a lot of money.

What am I getting for that?

And so it's hard because, like, a lot of what you just talked about is all behind the scenes background work that you're not going to see a physical.

Probably not going to see a physical benefit right away.

And so I think that can be hard for some people to justify supporting, but I think that's why, like, especially at a pre PA level, if we're about talking, talking about the profession and advocating and getting involved, that translates into doing that as a PA student and then as a PA and there are some PA schools that are more supportive or like, push that more than others.

I would say mine did not really, really at all.

So, no, you're fine.

I mean, we just.

We didn't go to aapa.

We did.

Some people went to gapa, but it was more of like a beach vacation.

It wasn't.

But I don't remember there being tons of conversation about getting involved.

Really.

Yeah.

And you know what?

You know, just thinking back, you know, from my experience so far and my experience in undergrad, I remember as an undergraduate student that our professors expected us to join our national association, to attend the conference for our national association.

And as an extension, you know, we were part of our state association.

That's just the way that it worked for Pennsylvania.

And I as a student didn't unfortunately see any benefit at all.

I mean, I'm obviously informed differently, you know, nowadays, but I really didn't see any benefit.

But interestingly, you know, looking at our membership in Pennsylvania, 50% of our membership Savannah is students.

That's a lot.

Oh, that's a lot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I mean, on the opposite end of the equation, I think that part of what your membership means to you is what involvement you have with regard to that membership.

So what you're willing to put in, I think can really heighten your appreciation, you know, of that membership.

And I just want to be straightforward, that I can only imagine that if you're in PA school, not looking to take on a lot of extra responsibilities.

And so there again, if you can be volunteering or learning about Things as a pre pa, that's a great opportunity to potentially take advantage of it if you can't.

Well, and everyone right now is looking for virtual volunteering, which a lot of what you would do for that can definitely be virtual.

I mean, you can.

A lot of it's online or whatever.

Yeah.

And so that's what's happening.

Really been interesting, you know, looking from a state perspective versus a very local, you know, kind of in person perspective.

I was really amazed by how much we could get done virtually, you know, across the state.

You know, you get to see them, know people from all over the state.

So, yes, you make a really good point.

As far as Covid is concerned, maybe there's a lot of volunteer opportunities that just aren't accessible, but this is definitely an opportunity that you may very much could do.

It's built into the structure to be able to do remotely.

Yeah, no, I completely agree.

So hopefully this, hopefully this talk will inspire everyone.

All the state societies are gonna get tons of emails and then like, what's going on?

Where did all these VPAs come from?

Yeah, and there was something that I think you had said, because I will admit that I probably listened to nearly every one of your podcasts.

It was something along the lines.

It was for admissions and just having, you know, grace with respect to the admissions counselors.

And, you know, please, please think about your, your state associations in that respect as well, you know, because they're volunteering.

This is on top of their, you know, day jobs and, you know, they have a lot, you know, they're probably trying to handle.

So maybe they won't answer you immediately.

But yeah, I'm sure they'll probably, you know, get to it at some point in time.

Yeah, no, I agree.

All these, you know, it's hard, like people forget, I think sometimes, like, we're really PAs and we really work and we're really, you know, doing a lot and trying to do everything else.

But that's just a, I think, a PA mentality.

So I don't think it's stopping.

Well, where can everyone kind of find you and follow along or send you questions?

Probably?

Sure.

Yeah.

So I do have an Instagram account, although I'm gonna tell you there's nothing posted on it.

There you go.

It is Leslie Marie Lawton.

And yeah, I'd be happy to answer questions.

Maybe someday I will start posting something.

But yeah, that would be a great place to ask questions.

I'd be happy to help out and maybe navigate something.

Help navigate something for anybody who's interested.

Cool.

Well, we'll send them your way,.

Sam.