Public Health minor a good idea
Next year, Professor Bradley P. Stoner plans to initiate a new minor for undergraduate students at Washington University: Public Health.
Stoner, associate professor of anthropology in the College of Arts & Sciences and associate professor of medicine in the School of Medicine, plans to set the minor in motion in the fall of 2008, when students will be able to take an “Introduction to Public Health” course. Peter Benson will also join the Anthropology department next year to add his skills to the effort.
We commend this initiative toward a new Public Health minor. As Stoner reports, interest in Public Health has been steadily growing at Wash. U. in recent years. Not only are more students interested in studying public health, but the field has also become an increasingly popular approach to medicine today.
For the large number of pre-medical students, the new minor will provide the opportunity to gain a broad perspective on all of the focused and specific courses that pre-med students usually take.
As Stoner puts it, “The minor in Public Health adds a communitarian focus to this training, allowing students to examine the larger social and environmental contexts in which health and illness are embedded.”
Nor will the minor be limited to pre-medical students. Stoner also says, “Public Health deals with the health of communities and populations. It is a broad-based focus on the biological, behavioral, environmental and cultural determinants of health and illness at the population level.”
This is certainly a potential area of interest for those interested in anthropology, biology and psychology, as well as for those in many other majors who are interested in such topics.
The minor also comes at a good time-it follows the failed merger between Washington University and the St. Louis University School of Public Health at the end of this October. Though, as quoted in a Student Life article on Oct. 29, SLU Provost Joe Weixlmann looked forward to the school’s future collaboration with Washington University, the two organizations decided to stay nominally separate. This merger, though not successful, is another indication of the growing interest in Public Health.
The Pubic Health minor will consist of five courses: “Introduction to Public Health,” “Public Health Research and Practice,” “Anthropology and Public Health” and two electives from a large interdisciplinary list of classes that treat the same subjects.
The minor will be excellent for current pre-med students as well as for students in other disciplines. We commend Professor Stoner, all participating professors, the Anthropology department and the School of Medicine for their initiation of this new minor.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related Posts
Print This Post