For Canisius University physician assistant (PA) students, preparing to care for patients means learning to look beyond a diagnosis. During the university’s annual Health Equity Week, students stepped into the Buffalo community to explore how access to food, safe housing, transportation and other essential resources affects a person’s health.
The student-led initiative featured eight service-learning opportunities with community organizations, from supporting people experiencing food insecurity to promoting inclusion and teaching children about healthy habits. The week reflects Canisius’ Jesuit mission and cura personalis — care for the whole person — by connecting classroom lessons with the lived experiences of the people future PAs will serve.
“Health is driven by broad access to options,” says Aimee Larson, DMSc, PA-C, chair and program director of Physician Assistant Studies. “Our students need to know how to care for the whole person and to understand why someone may not be able to follow their ‘standard’ plan of care.”
Learning Beyond the Classroom
Health Equity Week has been a tradition since the PA program welcomed its first cohort in 2021. Students take the lead in selecting service opportunities, contacting community partners and coordinating participation, with guidance from program faculty.
Alexandra Wyman MS ’28, the program’s volunteer coordinator, organized this year’s activities. For Wyman, who previously founded a student organization at the University at Buffalo supporting people experiencing homelessness and children in foster care, the week reinforced the connection between social circumstances and health outcomes.
While distributing food through the Salvation Army Food Pantry, Wyman and her classmates helped community members carry their supplies. The experience gave new meaning to concepts students regularly discuss in class, including food insecurity and homelessness.
“Although helping someone carry food may seem like a small gesture, it reminded me that sometimes the most meaningful thing we can do is show up, listen, and treat others with kindness and dignity,” Wyman says.
“In the classroom, we discuss how different factors contribute to poor health outcomes. However, being directly involved in serving these individuals gave those concepts a much more personal meaning,” she adds.
Larson says the experience broadens students’ perspectives before they enter clinical practice. “For many of them, they are working with communities and populations they have never been exposed to before.”
Recognizing the Barriers to Health
For Kayla Norek BS ’24, MS ’28, volunteering at the Salvation Army food pantry highlighted how having a community resource available does not necessarily mean everyone can access it.
Norek noticed an older woman struggling to maneuver her grocery cart through construction to reach the food pantry. The experience made her consider how difficult it can be for people to transport groceries, particularly when they must carry heavy bags a considerable distance to reach public transportation. It was a reminder that seemingly small obstacles can affect a person’s ability to meet basic needs.
“As a PA, my job is not only to address a patient’s immediate concern, but also to consider their access to medications, transportation, and a stable home environment, and help connect them with the resources they need,” Norek says.
That perspective reflects cura personalis, which calls future PAs to consider the circumstances shaping patients’ health and their ability to follow a treatment plan.
Small Acts, Lasting Lessons
Other activities offered students different ways to support community well-being. Hannah Rubin ’28 helped create note cards for FeedMore WNY to be included with food packages. She also helped prepare sandwiches for Friends of Night People, which serves neighbors experiencing hunger, poverty and homelessness.
Rubin says the experiences reinforced how health extends beyond physical well-being to include mental health, nutrition and a person’s environment. “Sometimes something small, like a note of encouragement, can have a huge impact on people, so it was very special to be part of this,” Rubin says of the cards.
She adds, “I have always been passionate about health equity, but this work and these opportunities to volunteer have shown me that we still have a long way to go to ensure that everyone has adequate access to quality care.”
For Larson, one of the week’s most important outcomes is helping students recognize how social circumstances shape health and influence the care patients need. She hopes they carry that understanding into their future careers as physician assistants.
For Wyman, the experience also reaffirmed the kind of provider she hopes to become: one who advocates for patients, recognizes barriers to care and remains involved in the community.
“As a future PA, I want to approach every patient with empathy, and an understanding of how their circumstances can affect their health and ability to follow a treatment plan. Being a good healthcare provider means recognizing that a patient needs more than a prescription. It’s about showing up and caring for the whole person,” Wyman says.
During Health Equity Week, Canisius University PA students supported community organizations across Buffalo through a variety of service activities. They participated in walks promoting domestic violence awareness and inclusion for people with Down syndrome, created cards for FeedMore WNY, helped distribute food, supported GiGi’s Playhouse and Harvest House, prepared sandwiches for Friends of Night People, and led a healthy-living activity for first graders at Lancaster Elementary.
