As the COVID-19 vaccine continues to roll out all over the nation, more and more students are getting the chance to receive it, including ones at Simpson.

Many students at Simpson have qualified to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from having pre-existing conditions to being in the healthcare field. Simpson’s campus is getting one step closer to being vaccinated and safe.

Alex Fuller, Ruth Black and Emmalee Reichart are three students who have received doses of the vaccine and tell how it felt and has impacted them.

Fuller, a sophomore at Simpson, received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on March 19 and received it through Simpson.

“I qualified for it because of asthma being an underlying condition, and I’m currently waiting on the school to give out more information for the second dose,” Fuller said.“I wasn’t going out of my way to try and get the vaccine, but when the school sent out the email, I immediately signed up.”

Fuller said he had bad chills and fatigue but that they passed by the afternoon that day.

“If the first dose is the one with the worst side effects, it was definitely worth it, so I don’t have to be paranoid about it,” Fuller said.

Emmalee Reichart, another sophomore at Simpson, received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on March 22 and is scheduled to receive her second on April 12.

“I was so excited. I want my life to be as normal as it can under these circumstances, so I was pumped. My grandmother got her first shot too, so soon we will be able to go on our old lunch dates together,” Reichart said.

Reichart said she didn’t experience any symptoms on her first dose.

“I haven’t had my second dose yet, but I already know that my second one will have the worse side effects due to hearing it from others,” she said.

Reichart believes returning to normal life is possible.

“I believe that the sooner we all get it, the more normal our lives can be while still protecting others,” Reichart. “The vaccine brings me optimism, but I know that not everyone wants to vaccinate, which is unfortunate for them.”

Ruth Black, a senior at Simpson, has received both doses of the Moderna vaccine.

“I got my first dose on Jan. 28 and then I went in and got my second dose on Feb. 25. I qualified for the vaccine because I’m a pharmacy technician, so I counted as a healthcare worker. They wanted to make sure that everyone in the pharmacy was vaccinated first before we were giving vaccinations out to everyone else,” Black said.

Black said she was excited to get the vaccine to be safer around her parents.

“I was really excited. I have older parents and my mom just recently turned 60, so they’re definitely more at risk, and I know that they’re really scared about it,” Black said. “Knowing that I was potentially going home this summer to live with them, I really wanted to do everything that I could to protect myself and just like protect everyone else around me.”

Black said the first dose affected her more than her second due to her previously having COVID-19.

“For me, the first dose affected me a lot more than the second. A lot of people say that if you’ve tested positive for COVID previously, you’re going to have a bigger reaction to the first dose since you kind of already have those antibodies in your immune system,” Black said.

Black said she experienced a fever for about 36 hours and a sore arm due to the vaccine. She is looking forward to going back to normal and a world without masks.

“Finally, being able to kind of put an end to all of this would be so nice, so anything that I could do in order to kind of speed up the process and like play my part I was excited to do,” Black said.