WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., April 10, 2017 — West Liberty University physician assistant students shared their knowledge on health and disease prevention with younger students recently at The Linsly School.
“This began as part of our Health Promotion and Disease Prevention course and we were very pleased to share with these younger students. Our first year students in the PA program provided interactive lessons and activities covering health and nutrition topics along with addressing social risks for students in grades 5 through 9. The program was well received by both the faculty and students and we hope to continue our partnership in the future,” said Assistant Professor Jennifer Childers, who is a principal faculty member for the PA program.
Sixteen students are in the first year PA class and all went to Linsly for the presentations.
“Half of our PA class presented the program to the fifth and sixth grades and the other half of our class presented to the seventh and eighth grades. Our students benefitted as much as the Linsly students really,” Childers said.
WLU PA student Jon-Michael Brunner, who happens to be a Linsly graduate, spearheaded the community service program.
“I knew that Linsly liked to work with the community and we worked with Carrie Ochap, head of Linsly’s physical education department,” Brunner said. “She was great to work with and gave us free range. We picked topics that made sense depending on the age of the students. We talked about nutrition, basic health facts and diet with the younger kids. Then with the older group, we addressed risk factors for many leading diseases and some common trends occurring in our country today. Both classes incorporated an interactive game to get the kids fired up to learn. 
“We want to make an impact in our community, state, and country. This service project made us one step closer to making a healthier future.”
Other PA students who visited Linsly include: Caitlyn Asbury, Brandon Bolduc, Emily Butler, Daniel Burns, Chelsea Camerlengo, Autumn Cunningham, Chad Eckerd, Julia Gotthardt, Ryan Killpack, Jillian Laslo, Courtney Pyeritz, Kim Rinard, Laura Waialae, Lauren Whitson and Ceirra Zeigler.
PAs are state licensed healthcare professionals who practice medicine with physician supervision. PAs are able to perform a full range of medical services from entry-level primary care to highly technical specialty procedures in nearly every medical and surgical healthcare setting. In some rural and underserved communities, PAs may serve as the primary providers of healthcare.
All PAs must graduate from a nationally accredited (ARC – PA) program, pass a national certification exam (NCCPA) and be licensed by a state medical board before being able to practice with physician supervision. WLU began its Master’s in Physician Assistant Studies degree program in 2012.
For more information on WLU’s PA program, please visit westliberty.edu/physician-assistant or call 304-336-5098.