Community Engagement

Community engagement helps ground primary care physicians in the lived context of health. This includes the structural and social determinants of health that affect a patient's physical and emotional well-being. As a Pathway Program student, you will participate in and contribute to a community engagement experience, providing support to individuals who are medically underserved, uninsured or underinsured in Philadelphia.

Your Options

The community engagement requirement can be completed in one of three ways.

1. Service Learning

You may participate in a formal service learning opportunity through the Bridging the Gaps program.

2. Clinical Elective

You may take a four-week clinical elective in Core 3, after completion of the clerkship year, which would also count toward the Pathway requirement for clinical electives.

• FAM326 Community Medicine and Public Health
  -or-
• ITD355 Externship on the IMPaCT Teaching Service

3. Extracurricular Activity

You may participate in an extracurricular activity (or activities) that involve meaningful engagement with community groups. Numerous student interest groups focus on community engagement. We encourage participation in a longitudinal experience in one activity.

If you plan to use an extracurricular activity to fulfill your requirement, you will need to:

• Complete at least 40 hours of engagement.
• Submit this brief form to document your experience.