WashU’s new Public Health and Society (PH&S) major collaborates with the new graduate School of Public Health (SPH) to offer unique course structures and electives, as well as the opportunity for students to actively shape the evolving curriculum in which they participate.

The courses are co-taught and planned by a professor in Arts & Sciences and a SPH faculty member. Professor Tristram R. Kidder, one of the co-directors for the PH&S program, highlights this collaborative structure as a way for students to gain a deeper, more complex learning experience.

“[The program] is a truly collaborative space where you are really abiding by the principles of Arts & Sciences while training and exposing students to public health principles, frameworks, and models,” Kidder said. 

The SPH and PH&S majors and minors have been in the works for the past three years to give students the new opportunity to explore a rapidly expanding field that encompasses both science and humanities. 

Kidder and Professor Lindsay Stark, the other co-director of the PH&S program, said while the program has been in development for several years, students, faculty, and staff are continuing to shape the program.

According to Stark and Kidder, PH&S offers a unique and interdisciplinary field that can be applied to many different career pathways and interests.

“We certainly have a good segment of the population who maybe is considering medical school but sees the value of [a] public health perspective to bring to medicine, ”Stark said. “Then we have students who are even outside of Arts & Sciences, who are coming from Olin or engineering, who are thinking about the ways that public health can intersect with a business major or an engineering major.”

The PH&S major and minor are always open to new challenges and changes to match the interests of students. 

“The fun part about this is that we’re building the airplane as we’re flying it,” Kidder said.

One way the program incorporates student voices is through the PH&S student ambassador program, where selected students bring awareness to the new program and relay feedback to administrators. According to sophomore and PH&S student ambassador, Ketan Tamirisa, the novelty and adventure of the major are what make it so appealing. 

Last year, PH&S student ambassadors ran small focus groups where students had the opportunity to voice potential changes and suggestions for the new program.

 Some recommendations included classes that connected with the St. Louis community and more research opportunities, according to Tamirisa. 

Dr. Mohammed Abba-Aji, a post-doctoral lecturer in PH&S and special projects manager of the SPH, emphasizes the significance that PH&S courses can bring to a multitude of different fields, for example, in economics.

“By bringing in that interdisciplinary lens … we make potential economic majors see the impact of what they’re going to do later in life as economists through learning about poverty and social welfare,” Abba-Aji said. 

Senior and PH&S student ambassador, Mia Kouveliotes, appreciates the importance of learning from such a broad perspective.

“Public health is everything,” she said. “It applies to so many different disciplines, whether it’s business or art, or it’s psychology — you know, more like traditional sciences. And I think it’s really important for everyone to have that perspective going into a world where human behavior and health [are] of the utmost importance.”

Sophomore Irene Sok, who is majoring in PH&S and on the pre-medical track, also appreciates that the program focuses on society as a whole.

“In health care, you’re not only helping one person. You’re not helping one system of organs. You’re helping like a system of people; you’re helping a population,” Song said. “And I think public health really ties that together. It shows how the healthcare system not only benefits one person, but benefits populations.”

The course also has a relatively smaller credit requirement in comparison to many of its science counterparts. As a result, students have the opportunity to double major or minor in PH&S while pursuing another field they are interested in, whether that be chemistry, anthropology, or Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

“We want students to be able to follow that pathway they want. Maybe it’s in medicine, maybe it’s in health, maybe it’s in business, maybe it’s in law, maybe it’s in public service of some sort. The degree lends itself intellectually to all those great arts and sciences, values of discovery, reading, writing, you know, all of that kind of stuff,” Kidder said. 

Editor’s note: This article was updated to include a link to the PH&S website