My 2023-2024 Pittsburgh Schweitzer Fellow project is called “D&D Wellness Guild” where we bring real world barriers to light in a role-playing game.

Through the local community partner, my project will work with low-income and aged-out children 9-18 in a summer and/or after-school program during the 2023-2024 school year. Through exploring healthy habits with cooking and physical activity, oriented around the game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), I will teach children how to overcome barriers to food and physical activity that seem overwhelming when on their own. We will use self-reports and surveys to analyze if the promoting of foods and activity worked in a game-focused setting. I would like to see this become a staple in the community so that children can look forward to new experiences in the years to come.

This program was retired Fall 2023.

"PSFP is a 16-month leadership training program that prepares future leaders in both for-profit and non-profit arenas to address the health and human service needs of at-risk communities and underserved populations. PSFP utilizes Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s principles, coupled with a direct service servant leadership model. Our servant leadership model incorporates an understanding of the social determinants of health and social justice issues that affect health outcomes for our community’s most vulnerable people, with a strong focus on social justice and environmental health issues.

Graduate students, from any discipline, are eligible to apply from any university in the Greater Pittsburgh Area. PSFP takes a health-in-all-things approach to wellness and acknowledges that wellbeing is tied to far more than an individual’s medical health.

PSFP has hosted students from medicine, physical therapy, nursing, psychology, social work, criminal justice, law, dentistry, business, public health, food studies, creative writing, sustainability and environmental studies, international studies, education, and other disciplines. These interdisciplinary cohorts allow Fellows to learn from and lean on the expertise of their fellow Fellows, both in their own leadership development and in the delivery of their direct service project. Each Fellow also works with a team of professional mentors (Schweitzer, Academic, and Site) to deliver their direct service project to the community.

Fellows complete our Fellowship Program with core competencies that prepare them to work with and advocate for marginalized people in both non-profit and for-profit careers.

Additionally, more than 100 Fellows have provided care at the 100-year-old Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon, West Africa. Through this work, the Pittsburgh Schweitzer Fellows Program perpetuates the legacy and philosophy of famed physician-humanitarian Dr. Albert Schweitzer."

Source: About the Pittsburgh Schweitzer Fellowship Program - Pittsburgh Schweitzer Fellows Program 

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