Undergraduate public health education expands nationwide: Classes, programs expand for students

Donya Currie

At Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, all first-year students participate in a “great problems” seminar focusing on issues such as food sustainability, the world’s water supply or chronic disease. The early public health exposure means a number of those students end up doing public health work in their junior and senior years.

At Kapi’olani Community College in Hawaii, students choose from the service learning “pathways” of health, the environment and elder care as part of their general education curriculum. A recent service project matched Native Hawaiian students with native elders to work on health literacy.