Alpha Phi, a sorority on Marquette’s campus, celebrates Cardiac Care Month during February. Their philanthropy focuses on women’s heart health, and the Alpha Phi Foundation annually awards the Heart to Heart Cardiac Care grant to an organization focused on women’s cardiac research.
One member of Alpha Phi Lauren Vasko, a sophomore in the College of Business, says she was particularly interested in the sorority when she went through recruitment last year.
Vasko says she was drawn to Alpha Phi because of her personal connection to the philanthropy. She suffers from a heart condition called POTS, or Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.
The condition affects 1,000,000 to 3,000,000 Americans, 80% of which are women.
Unfortunately, because of her health conditions, Vasko had to withdraw from Marquette last semester. Vasko will return fall of 2019.
“It’s a condition affecting the blood flow, and the heart rate rapidly increases when a person stands up,” Vasko says. “We get symptoms of dizziness, heart palpitations, headaches, fainting, so a lot of stuff like that.”
She says she believes raising awareness specifically for women’s heart health is important.
“A lot of people don’t know how many women it affects, and even young women aren’t aware it can affect them,” Vasko says.
