OSU Medicine students provide community service

Monday, August 24, 2009

TULSA, Okla. – Students at Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine got a taste of community life and volunteerism as part of orientation week.  “Our osteopathic medical students enjoy volunteering their services in the Tulsa area,” said Stanley Grogg, D.O., interim president of the College. “By being a part of the Tulsa community from their first day at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, they fulfill their desire to care for others.”

Students took part in community projects at the Eastern Oklahoma Community Food Bank, and at Eugene Field Elementary School, the medical school’s partner in education. At the food bank, they helped label canned goods and box them for its warehouse. At Eugene Field, they helped with classroom activities, shelved library books, cleaned storage closets, played basketball with and read to young students, and weeded the school’s peace garden. During the year, OSU students return to Eugene Field as mentors, and to conduct science and health learning activities.

The day highlights the tradition of OSU-COM students working in the community.  “Our new students need to become a cohesive group in an environment that is not academic, a place where they can focus on a task that is for a much larger cause than them, and to introduce them to the Tulsa community,” said Dana Livingston, the College’s director of Student Services.

Students continue to volunteer during the year through local and area health fairs, and service projects such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Christmas for children in the OSU Medical Center, providing baby clothing to the neonatal department, volunteering at John 3:16 mission, food drives, a socks drive for the Day Center for the Homeless, and working at Habitat for Humanity, Doctors Without Borders and Bedlam Clinic.