As the Community Health & Engineering Librarian, I provide consumer health information flyers, brochures, and bookmarks from the Biomedical Library’s Consumer Health Information Corner to participants of Walk with a (Future) Doc, a health sciences student-run initiative sponsored by the Center for Public Health Initiatives.

To kick off the walk that took place on Saturday, September 22nd, Elaine Weigelt, the Community Outreach Program Manager at the Center for Public Health Initiatives, demonstrated warm-up exercises that can be done while sitting, standing, or walking. Then, we began our walk. Along the way, I conversed with first-year medical students who expressed that they need to change their study techniques for an anatomy course and debated whether anatomy is a difficult course or not. Interestingly enough, I have heard these exact sentiments at the InterProfessional Student Advisory Gatherings (#IPSAG), a Penn Libraries’ networking event series geared towards students interested in clinical and other health sciences-related career paths.

I also talked to the youngest walkers, an elementary school student and a high school student, who shared their likes and dislikes regarding food, music, and school. One of them is thinking about becoming a doctor, so it was with great pleasure that I shared health information handouts and bookmarks to a future pre-med student.

Following the walk, and after eating healthy snacks, I led the medical students on an excursion to the Clark Park Farmer’s Market.

I highly encourage you and your loved ones to join your fellow health sciences students, public health professionals, clinicians, fellow West Philadelphia residents, and this Community Health & Engineering Librarian in these biweekly Saturday morning walks. The next walk is on October 13th.

Learn more about the Biomedical Library’s Health Information Literacy Initiatives.