UF Pre-Health Blog: Lifestyle Medicine Trainees

Who are the ACLM Trainees?

The Trainees are ACLM's student membership community. Trainees help spread the word about Lifestyle Medicine by starting Lifestyle Medicine Interest Groups, hosting events, attending the national conference and much more!

Spotlights

Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine

Where: Dothan, Alabama

Student Leaders: Brittany Boyd, Christina Schock, Alexis O’Connell, Racheal Davidson, and Arianna Lanpher

Faculty Advisor: Dr. John Biery

Students from the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine came together with an idea and reached out to ACLM in the Summer of 2019 to establish the first LMIG in the state.

“At ACOM, we have students that are passionate about educating patients and other medical students about nutrition and preventing and reversing chronic disease with lifestyle modifications,” says LMIG president, Brittany Boyd. “This is especially an issue in rural Alabama, where our school is located, and some basic education would really go a long way.”

The group held this first event in early September during the Interest Group Information Night at their school. “We spoke with many first years that were interested in the club and really passionate and wanted to get involved. We served green goddess and ginger zinger homemade juice, which I was worried would be not sweet enough for some people, as there was no added sugar, but everyone loved it!”

ACOM followed up their interest group tabling night with a couple plant-based lunch and learn events. Group leaders discussed the benefits of WFPB nutrition and how to get more involved in LM. During the second lunch and learn, their school dean spoke about his involvement in LM and how the field has grown overtime. “Students loved the whole food plant based lunch, and I think to some it was eye opening to them to see how flavorful and filling a fully plant based meal can be.”

During a local health fair in September, the LMIG members counseled community members and helped identify at least one practical step they could take towards improving their nutrition starting that day.

Brittany and her team have had great success during their first semester and hope to continue with more lunch and learn meetings at ACOM in addition to future community events.

ACLM Trainees

Email: Trainees@lifestylemedicine.org | @ACLMTrainees

Rianna Goetting Capelj- V.P. Education

Email: RiannaGoetting@Oakland.edu | @WholisticRianna

Rianna Goetting Capelj, VP Communications

ACLM’s Trainees Board is a group of emerging healthcare professionals aiming to raise Lifestyle Medicine awareness to students nationally. Various roles among the board include research, education, development, and communications positions.

Meet Rianna Goetting Capelj, who served as the Vice President of Communications from 2019-2020. Her tasks included designing and posting content for the @ACLMTrainees social media platforms, including: Facebook, Twitter, and majorily Instagram. Rianna is a pre-medical student at Oakland University in Rochester Hills, MI. When she’s not studying, Rianna loves reading and writing, being in nature, staying active, networking, and engaging with her community. Her favorite aspect of being on the Trainees Board is collaborating with like-minded people with similar interests and a common goal: to make Lifestyle Medicine the foundation of health care- starting with students. Throughout the last few months, the Communications team was able to grow their Instagram to reach 1000+ followers! Rianna enjoyed that her position allowed her to be creative when creating infographics, posts, and captions. Her most memorable moment was meeting familiar faces from social media and the Trainees monthly Zoom meetings in person at the ACLM conference; these faces have grown into life-long friendships based on passion and leadership.

The Trainees Eboard recently held elections for new positions for their transition into 2020-2021. This year, Rianna decided to run for Vice President of Education. Her roles include developing and organizing resources that will help Lifestyle Medicine Interest Groups and Trainees expand LM amongst their institution. A specific goal she has is to create materials for LMIGs to simplify the process of establishing their groups on campus. Additionally, she wants to support individual Trainees by highlighting the opportunities available to them by ACLM (including grants, scholarships, networking, and more).

The Trainees Eboard is excited to welcome their 13 new members to the board! Their first meeting of the term will be held at the end of the month. If you have any suggestions for educational content you think would be of value for professionals in training, Rianna would love to hear your ideas! To learn more or get involved with ACLM Trainees, follow them on social media or shoot them an email!

Trainee Opportunities

Start a Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group (LMIG) at your institution. The establishment of an LMIG cultivates multi-institutional, student-initiated programming that supports healthy habits for medical students, residents, and attending physicians, as well as the local community.

· Host events - apply for a grant to fund Plant Based food at your university.

· Engage peers - Apply for or share the Donald A Pegg Student Leadership Award

· Advocate for true health care and education reform - Learn more and apply to implement the LM Residency Curriculum.