Two epidemiology alums found love here on campus while earning their master’s degrees. When their wedding plans are interrupted by a global pandemic, their community of health colleagues help them get married in a unique ceremony fit for these hardworking frontline heroes.
Driven by a desire to do something about an emerging water crisis in Pakistan, Omar Ilyas and some friends started fundraising to build a well. About 24 months later, they had completed funding and construction on their 750th water well through their nonprofit Paani. The 2019 graduate is not stopping there.
Nurses are taught to see the big pictures of their patient’s lives—from homelife to water and air quality to employment. Wherever health care and communities intersect, public health nurses are there caring for patients and populations. This sense of expanded community gives online MPH student and full-time oncology nurse Chris Rudski hope that we will soon be living in a richer, more vibrant world.
Suzanne Cole absorbs the energy and optimism of public health students and shares it right back with them, consistently creating an environment of positive energy in the classroom. She encourages students to consider how course materials connect to professional goals, sharpening both their intellectual curiosity and their passion for population health.
The field of toxicology within public health benefits from understanding these same mechanisms to inform how toxicity can manifest from an exposure into a health outcome affecting millions of people. That public health seeks to prevent adverse outcomes for large populations contributes to my interest in the field.
Public health isn't just one thing—it really is everything! Everything around us relates to public health in one way or another. When young people in high school and undergraduate studies see how their interests relate to population-level health, it draws them in.