Garden Cultivates Opportunity to Unwind and Give Back
September 9, 2022Squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, rosemary, lavender and mint. These are just
some of the delectable foods growing in the community garden on the campus of PCOM Georgia in Suwanee. Madison Cohen, MS/Biomed ’21 (DO ’25), chair of the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine class of 2025, with the assistance of faculty members and students, started the garden
as a way for campus gardeners to “unwind, get active and give back to the community.”
The vegetable garden has already proven useful. The herbs were used to flavor the
foods prepared by DO students in the culinary medicine course taught this summer. And the Wellness Committee is working with Cohen to host a gardening
event for students this fall. In the future, Cohen said she hopes to donate crops
to a local food bank or even to the campus food pantry, which is available for students.
Green thumbs run in Cohen’s family. Her grandfather owned a farm that she spent her
childhood summers on. She recalls, “Some of my favorite childhood memories are of
my uncle and me picking crops from the garden and looking for cool rocks and pieces
of pottery that would pop up right after the soil was tilled.”
Cohen’s great-grandmother had a fine-looking flower garden and an “open garden policy.”
Cohen said she would let anyone pick flowers from her garden at any time. Her great-grandmother
was known for her beautiful flowers and took pride in creating all of the flower arrangements
for her church.
Raised in Wellington, Florida, Cohen later moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, before
attending college at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. When she moved to
Gwinnett County to earn her master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences in preparation for medical school, Cohen brought her gardening habit with her. She
regularly tends plants like lemons, dragon fruit, pineapples, blackberries, monstera
and money trees at her home greenhouse.
Funding for the initial phase of the community garden is through the PCOM Community-Engaged
Faculty Research Fellowship sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Community Engagement. Professor of Physiology Brian Matayoshi’s soil testing student project, in partnership with Emory University, the Georgia Department
of Public Health, and the Environmental Protection Agency, is focused on lead contamination
of soil in the Atlanta area. The group uses the garden as a negative control for soil
testing.
Francis Jenney, PhD, professor of biochemistry in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, has been instrumental
in encouraging the effort. He said, “I’m always looking for ways to get students interested
in ecology.”
He added, “I’m very excited to support the garden because I think it’s a fantastic
experience for the students and potentially really useful for the community because
our students are learning how to grow food. I look forward to helping to expand this
effort.”
Along with Cohen, students who have been instrumental in maintaining the garden include
Jaci Carithers, MS ‘22 (DO ’26), Sanjana Das (DO ’25), Mitch Karr (DO ’25), Shubhra
Rajpurohit (DO ’25), Hunter Vasquez, MS ‘21 (DO ’25) and Sarah Yoon (DO ’25). The
beds were built by Cohen with assistance from Karr, Michael Bien (DO ’25), Kevin Wang
(DO ’25) and Robert Griffin (DO ’24).
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About PCOM Georgia
Established in 2005, PCOM Georgia is a private, not-for-profit, accredited institute of higher education dedicated
to the healthcare professions. The Suwanee, Georgia, campus is affiliated with Philadelphia
College of Osteopathic Medicine, a premier osteopathic medical school with a storied
history. PCOM Georgia offers doctoral degrees in osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, and
physical therapy and graduate degrees in biomedical sciences, medical laboratory science,
and physician assistant studies. Emphasizing "a whole person approach to care," PCOM
Georgia focuses on educational excellence, interprofessional education and service
to the wider community. For more information, visit pcom.edu/georgia or call 678-225-7500. The campus is also home to the Georgia Osteopathic Care Center,
an osteopathic manipulative medicine clinic, which is open to the public by appointment.
For more information, visit pcomgeorgiahealth.org.
For more information, contact:
Barbara Myers
Senior Public Relations Manager
Email: BarbaraMy@pcom.edu
Office: 678-225-7532 | Cell:
770-309-0613
Connect with PCOM Georgia