Many students enter medical school with a rough idea of the specialty they would one
day like to pursue. From the start of her medical career, Kendal Schaetzle (DO `23)
knew she wanted to pursue a global health track, focusing on family medicine and specializing in sports medicine and underserved populations. As an athlete, Ms.
Schaetzle saw firsthand the impact that techniques like osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) could have on healing. This focus on OMT led Ms. Schaetzle to MGY Aware, a global organization that focuses on reducing health disparity by working with
communities in need, and helping them to provide sustainable resources.
Ms. Schaetzle learned of MGY Aware during an emergency medicine rotation at Einstein Health Network in Philadelphia, PA. She began working with the organization in January 2022 and in July 2022, Ms. Schaetzle traveled to the Peruvian Amazon with the MGY group “MGY Amazonas” to train thirty-four community health workers in medical topics including OMT. Learning from their culture, Ms. Schaetzle worked to maximize the impact this training could have on the health of the community.
“It was a pleasure to work with these community health workers. They will use the skills they learned with MGY Aware and bring them back to their community, to improve health. Especially in low-resource areas, these techniques are important and impactful,” shared Ms. Schaetzle.
Since returning to the United States, Ms. Schaetzle remains actively involved with MGY Aware, as a member of the organization’s Amazonas Team and osteopathic manipulative medicine executive board. The organization meets regularly to discuss the OMT curriculum and other areas of focus, including fundraising needs, logistics and educational opportunities for the communities they serve. The organization currently has projects in California, New Mexico, Peru and Uganda.
In 2019, Ms. Schaetzle was selected to become an OMM Scholar at PCOM. Her medical school training includes an additional twelve months integrated into her clinical years, treating patients and teaching labs to first and second-year students in the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program.
Ms. Schaetzle is a native of Erie, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the University of Dayton with a bachelor of science in biology.
With a strong commitment to student volunteer efforts and community wellness, PCOM President and CEO Jay S. Feldstein, DO ‘81, established the Community Wellness Initiative (CWI) to enhance the culture of holistic health and well-being on PCOM’s campuses and in the communities they serve. The CWI aims to promote cross-campus collaboration in educational and health services programming and resources to support the physical, mental, nutritional and environmental wellness of the College’s communities in Philadelphia and in Suwanee and Moultrie, Georgia. Focus areas include direct patient care, health and wellness education, and clinical and community-based research.
For the past 125 years, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) has trained thousands of highly competent, caring physicians, health practitioners and behavioral scientists who practice a “whole person” approach to care—treating people, not just symptoms. PCOM, a private, not-for-profit accredited institution of higher education, operates three campuses (PCOM, PCOM Georgia and PCOM South Georgia) and offers doctoral degrees in clinical psychology, educational psychology, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, and school psychology. The college also offers graduate degrees in applied behavior analysis, applied positive psychology, biomedical sciences, forensic medicine, medical laboratory science, mental health counseling, physician assistant studies, and school psychology. PCOM students learn the importance of health promotion, research, education and service to the community. Through its community-based Healthcare Centers, PCOM provides care to medically underserved populations. For more information, visit pcom.edu or call 215-871-6100.
Brandon Lausch
Executive Director, Strategic Communications
Email: brandonla@pcom.edu
Office: 215-871-6312 | Cell:
717-371-0609
© 2024 Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine