Since the mid 1970s Johns Hopkins University has offered a B.A. degree in public health either with a natural science emphasis or an emphasis in social and behavioral sciences. Starting in 1995 Public Health became a "hot" major. Over the next five years the number of graduating seniors majoring in Public Health rose from less than 25 to over 75 making it the second largest major in the School of Arts and Sciences. A combination of factors caused this surge of interest. Undergraduates discovered that the public health major fit extremely well with their rising interest in community service. The Dean of SPH supported the undergraduate program, and his faculty generally welcomed the undergraduates in their classes. Finally, full time advising became available to undergraduate majors, providing a home base for the major for the first time. In 2000 the curriculum for the major has been reconfigured so that it a) requires a core set of courses: statistics, epidemiology, environmental health, health policy and management, biology, English, calculus and foreign language; b) allows students to choose elective undergraduate courses to further their aspirations toward medical school or elsewhere; c) includes elective graduate courses at the School of Hygiene and Public Health. For many of these students public health is more than a major, it has become a professional direction of choice. In the graduating class of 2000 seventeen went directly to graduate programs in schools of public health, and this number will certainly rise with the class of 2001.
Learning Objectives: To provide in depth description and analysis of the academic scope, administrative arrangements, institutional support and student outcomes of a particularly successful undergraduate program in Public Health Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Participants will be able to identify components of a successful undergraduate program that can serve as a model for the creation of similar programs at the undergraduate level.
Keywords: Public Health Education, Public Health Curriculum