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Students Serve the Greater Good
Student Government Association President Mike Tecce (DO ’15) works with local students to clean up Lee Cultural Center in West Philadelphia.
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Our students’ service reflects the College’s Mission to provide basic medical needs for the marginalized and to bridge the gaps between what exists and what is needed.
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– Tina Woodruff, EdD, Chief Student Affairs Officer
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PCOM and GA–PCOM students organize and conduct myriad community outreach projects throughout the year. Some highlights from the past few months include fundraisers, OMT treatments for athletes and community cleanups. Members of PCOM’s Emergency Medicine Interest Group (EMIG) volunteered at the Bike MS: City to Shore Ride on September 28 and 29. Students staffed a rest stop and provided OMM for bikers who rode all or part of the 100-mile charity ride. The Student Osteopathic Medical Association (SOMA) of GA–PCOM sponsored the Old Peachtree Road 5K in August, raising $2,000 for Rainbow Village, a transitional housing community for homeless families with children in Gwinnett County. SOMA is helping to erase the myth that homelessness is an inner-city issue. The funds raised were double those from last year’s event.
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Sigma Sigma Phi, GA–PCOM, donated the proceeds from its annual golf tournament, held in October, to Hope for Steve (www.hopeforsteve.com). This was one of several events held in Atlanta, Boston and Pittsburgh to help Steve December, who was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) just shy of his 28th birthday. The traditional PCOMmunity Outreach Day was expanded this year to an entire weekend. This year’s PCOMmunity Outreach Weekend embodied the spirit of the College, as students from all programs worked handin-hand with one another and the communities they serve. Included in the weekend’s activities was a clean-up day at a West Philadelphia playground, and a variety of volunteer assignments at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Walk and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk.