UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State kinesiology students are leading conversations across the state about health and wellness.
Exercise is Medicine’s (EiM) Mobile Outreach & Regional Expansion initiative, which launched in the fall, is a project of the Penn State Kinesiology Department that takes EiM’s events and health assessments to campuses and community groups across the state. The mobile component of EiM allows kinesiology students the opportunity to travel across Pennsylvania to give wellness advice and conduct fitness assessments.
Since its kickoff, two trips have been made, with more on the horizon for spring.
Mobile EiM is funded by a grant from the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, the Thomas M. Nardozzo Community Service Endowment and the Department of Kinesiology’s Faculty Endowment Fund.
“We actually made two trips during the fall 2014 semester and spoke in person with several campus faculty as well,” said Michele Duffey, director of the Kinesiology Physical Activity Program. “There are many groups who are interested in taking advantage of Mobile EiM, including an event coordinated with the Engaged Scholarship office.”
“Our inaugural trip was to the Penn State Hershey Medical Center, coordinated with the Penn State University Fitness Center in Hershey, where we staged an outdoor event at the farmers’ market,” Duffey said. “The second trip was a preparatory event for May 2015 coordinated by the Engaged Scholarship office and physician in charge of the upcoming spring event.”
Items the group travels with includes a BIA, or Bodystat 1500 bioelectrical impedance analysis unit, which analyzes body composition; a first aid kit; laptop computers for recording and linking health history and personal accounts; Monark bicycles to be used for the assessment of cardiorespiratory fitness; counters used in assessments to increase accuracy; and stop watches.
Assessment tests given, depending on the site, may include blood lipid and glucose testing, said Chris Bopp, instructor and director of the Center for Fitness and Wellness (CFW).
“Everything we do at the CFW will be available in the mobile EiM lab,” Bopp said.
Kinesiology students and one or two advisers travel with a trailer that transports exercise and assessment equipment. Each visit involves some combination of health and fitness assessments and promotional events. The group may also set up peer mentoring at some locations for students interested in kinesiology.
Students in the Mobile EiM program are chosen based on their experiences; most are interns at the Center for Fitness and Wellness.
“They’re coming from a pool of people who are used to working with individuals,” Duffey said.
The trip to Hershey, which took place in the beginning of October, was very successful, Duffey said.
“We had meaningful interactions with at least 50 people,” Duffey said.
Seven undergraduate students, one staff member and two faculty members went on the trip.
Support from the medical center and the local community played a huge role in the success of the event, Duffey said.
“We were able to have extended conversations also,” she said. “I think the day went remarkably well.”
Alison Shreiner, a senior kinesiology major, said one of the biggest lessons she took away from both trips was how to interact with an older population.
Dealing with mostly college-aged individuals on campus, she hadn’t previously been exposed to a wide age range when it came to fitness tests and assessments, she said.
Shreiner also had the experience of taking what she learned during the first trip and applying it to the second, such as getting equipment organized and setting up tests in the proper order.
“It was a great experience to figure out tasks from the organizational standpoint,” she said about Mobile EiM. “It will prepare me for my future career. I recommend it to other interns.”
Deborah Tregea, senior exercise physiologist and campus wellness coordinator at Penn State University Fitness Center in Hershey, said having the Mobile EiM unit at the farmers’ market was a positive experience.
“Every week at the market a ‘community partner’ is there to provide an experience in healthy living or integrative medical practice,” Tregea said. “Mobile EiM’s appearance as the weekly community partner in October provided a unique, engaging and active feature. It was well attended, participants were asking good questions and getting good information from the EIM team.”
Probably most unique, she said, is the physical activity component.
“Having the EiM mobile unit provide that message was the driving force behind us inviting them to the farmers market,” she said. “Within the complexity of this academic medical center and health care in general, getting that simple message out is incredibly difficult.”
The second trip, to St. Barnabus Episcopal Church in Colyersville, Maryland, drew an older population. This specific trip, which took place later in October, provided an opportunity for students to deal with people who aren’t necessarily young and healthy, like many college students are, Bopp said.
The next trip will most likely take place in the Washington, D.C., area in the spring.
“I think it’s going very well,” Duffey said. “The students change from the time we arrive until the trip is over. The exposure and how they adapt to what they’re discovering is amazing.”
EiM on campus is an initiative of the American College of Sports Medicine that calls on universities and colleges to promote the health benefits of physical activity and exercise on their campuses. The first campus-wide EiM event at Penn State's University Park campus was held in November 2012.
For more information about the Penn State Kinesiology Club, visit pennstatekines.wix.com/club.
For more information about Exercise is Medicine at Penn State, visit pennstateeim.weebly.com.
For more information about Penn State’s Department of Kinesiology, visit www.hhd.psu.edu/kines.