Medicine

Medical student educates children about healthy eating

Medical students provide a nutrition lesson to elementary school students as part of the HealthSLAM program. Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Medical students often hope they grow into physicians who make a difference.

Some start making that difference as soon as they enter medical school.

Penn State College of Medicine graduating medical student Christian McEvoy has left his mark on elementary health and nutrition education in Pennsylvania through a program he created called HealthSLAM.

HealthSLAM is designed to teach fourth and fifth grade students healthy eating habits at a time in their lives when they are learning to think for themselves.

McEvoy said fourth and fifth grade are also the years when children seem to begin development of what will become their adult habits.

“It’s a time in which some children are starting to have buying power in their family unit, so they are going to the grocery store with mom and dad or whoever’s taking caring of them and they are able to say ‘I would like that, I don’t want that,'” McEvoy said.

McEvoy started the program about three years ago when awarded the Department of Humanities Clouser Award, which provides $1,500 in funding for innovative projects. His idea was to revamp an existing program.

He recruited now fourth-year medical student Nicole Stevens, along with other members of his class, to create the content and deliver the message of healthy eating by engaging elementary students through cutting edge teaching techniques and use of technology.

Read more about the HealthSLAM program in this Penn State Medicine article.

Last Updated May 19, 2015

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