Gianna Nasta has always loved helping others. It’s a life goal that began when she was 17. It was then when she began working for a family-owned pharmacy in her hometown.

"I saw then how the pharmacists interacted with the patients, and it was like a little like close knit family and how much they were able to help people. And I knew that I wanted to do that. After working there and seeing it,” said Nasta, a pharmacy student at Binghamton University.

Nasta is part of a potentially new workforce of pharmacists, a demand that’s never been higher.

"The shortage right now is crazy, and I'm just hoping that as we graduate and as more students come in, they see that the good that we're doing when we go out there. So that will hopefully influence more people to go to pharmacy school. That way we can get the number up again," said Nasta.

The nationwide shortage has led to decreased hours at the pharmacy and even a number of closures. Rite Aid recently filed for bankruptcy, and announced the pending closure of up to 500 stores. CVS plans to close 900 by next year and Walgreens could close 150 by August.

With just eight schools of pharmacy across the state, students like Nasta are now more important than ever.

"The more students that we have coming in, the more future pharmacists we're going to have going out. And I think that that's really going to greatly help both retail and institutional with hospitals and stuff like that," said Nasta.

Binghamton has roughly 360 students enrolled at the pharmacy school with 15 Ph.D. students attending.