California Health Professional Student Alliance (CaHPSA) at Berkeley goes to LLD!

Greetings! We are the California Health Professional Student Alliance, or CaHPSA, at Berkeley! CaHPSA is the student arm of the California Physicians Alliance (CaPA). CaHPSA is dedicated to developing students' leadership and advocacy skills, empowering them to drive meaningful change in the healthcare system. Through grassroots advocacy efforts, educational initiatives, and community volunteering, CaHPSA champions the cause of ensuring comprehensive, high-quality, accessible, and affordable healthcare for all Californians. 

CaHPSA operates through three committees: the External Committee, which focuses on volunteering and certifying members as health insurance enrollment counselors; the Advocacy Committee, which teaches grassroots advocacy, guides members in drafting policy proposals, and provides training on how to engage with legislators; and the Policy Research Committee, where members write up to two research papers per semester and publish them on our eScholarship open publishing page.

LLD is CaHPSA’s flagship event, held annually in Sacramento, California with an attendance of over 500 pre-health and medical university/college students, health & medical professionals, and community health activists. On 04/08/26, CaHPSA students from UC Berkeley will host LLD at the Capitol in Sacramento. With 8-10 legislative office meetings in the process of being successfully confirmed and scheduled, this event provides undergraduate students with a unique and transformative opportunity to actively participate in legislative advocacy, engage with policymakers, and contribute to shaping the future of healthcare in California. The primary objective is to empower students by equipping them with the skills and confidence to advocate for meaningful healthcare reform.

CaHPSA and CaPA work together to advocate for equitable and accessible healthcare for ALL Californians. Our mission is bigger than us; it is to support our communities in accessing healthcare, which should be a human right. As future healthcare professionals, this is crucial practice of how we should and will advocate for our patients.

LLD occurs in the Capitol in Sacramento. The drive is about 80 miles. We will use the funds to reimburse our 2-3 drivers utilizing their own cars to transport some of our students back and forth, which is about $200. Additional cars are needed, so we will rent or use ZipCar (or such) like we have done in previous years, which also requires funding of about $300. Additionally, we will be purchasing CaHPSA pins so that we can be tagged which is about $100. Finally, if funds allow, we would like to provide our members with water, snacks, and lunch to thank and congratulate them as they will have completed a project that they worked on from August 2025-April 2026, which is about $300-400. It is a long day and they will require a nutrition break. 

Regardless of if the goal is met or not, we will still be going to LLD. Any funds raised will be extremely helpful in reimbursing drivers. The effect of not reaching our goal is having to take less students to advocate.

https://caphysiciansalliance.org/about/

We appreciate you taking the time to consider our project, and hope that you can support our efforts. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact our Presidents: 

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  • Jennifer Boulad: jenniferboulad@berkeley.edu 
  • Sabeeka Qureshi: sabeeka@berkeley.edu 

As of February 24, a generous Cal alum matched $500 in gifts to CaHPSA, as a part of their spring crowdfunding campaign. Thank you doubling your impact and supporting healthcare advocates!