“From stocking our kitchens to being at-home remedies for maladies like pain or infection, the need for plants has been apparent since the dawn of time,”  writes Public Health students Joshua Leland ’22M, MPH, Rena Ogino ’22M, MPH, and Lauren Pianucci ’22M, MPH in their recent multimedia project about the impact of herbalism on community health.

As the focus of the project, Leland, Ogino, and Pianucci interviewed community Herbalist Sarah Sorci, the owner of Sweet Flag Herbs in Fredonia, N.Y. Over the course of her career, Sorci has served as executive board president for Greystone Nature Preserve, co-coordinator of the Western New York chapter of Herbalists Without Borders, and a full-time member of the Buffalo Botanical Gardens’ Medicinal Garden Committee. 

This interview was conducted as part of the YES! Solutions Pilot Project, a multimedia project competition hosted by the YES! For Teachers magazine. Lindsey McGann, administrative manager of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies and instructor for the “Community and Environmental Health” Public Health course, submitted for the class to participate in this program in 2019. Arcadia was one of three universities selected, with a total of nine projects selected for participation.

Read the Interview