Minor in Global Public Health

Minor

Global Public Health

On Campus

Public health issues pose some of the greatest challenges of our time — from combating the rising heroin epidemic and modernizing our mental health system to ensuring children are immunized.

A nursing student checks her notes on a clipboard at a clinic in Nicaragua

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Program Overview

The minor in global public health provides an interdisciplinary focus of study that enables you to understand and promote individual and population health throughout the world. This is accomplished via a range of courses that provide relevant and rigorous intellectual learning, community and opportunities to participate in international education as well as community service.

This minor is suitable for students with a wide range of interests in the humanities, business and the arts and the sciences, as each of these disciplines addresses the diversity and complexity of global public health issues. Students are encouraged to explore the variety of course offerings to enrich their academic experience.

Your Experience

The minor’s interdisciplinary approach allows you to explore a wide selection of subjects, such as anthropology, politics, sociology, biomedical science and psychology. International education options offer the opportunity to assist underserved populations, both in the U.S. and overseas. Previously, students have traveled to Barbados to work with the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Diabetes Center; to Kenya to work with the Nanyuki District Hospital as well as the Mukogodo Girls Empowerment Program; to the Dominican Republic with a focus on community, child and maternal health with our partner, Good Samaritan Hospital; to Haiti to address physical and occupational therapy education and program development; and to Uganda, where our focus has been on maternal health and HIV outreach.

For their community service opportunities, students can choose to work in more than 60 sites in the greater New Haven region. Some of the most frequently selected are Columbus House, serving the homeless in New Haven; Elim Park, a retirement community in Cheshire; Connecticut Food Bank, the state’s largest food provider for people in need; Yale New Haven Hospital; and New Haven’s Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Service in New Haven (IRIS), which welcomes and resettles immigrants coming to the southern Connecticut region.

Students must complete 18 total credits (usually six courses).

In Their Words

Evan Gundling in a lab coat outside a medical facility

Evan Gundling ’22

Medical Microbiology & Immunology, Global Public Health, Pre-Medical Studies

“I've noticed social aspects of everyday life that influence people’s health, but through the global public health minor, I've learned how America’s social determinants differ so much from those of European countries, African countries, and Asian countries - it has been very eye-opening.”