Fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, student interest in Elizabethtown College’s Public Health program has experienced steady growth, similar to national trends. Interest in Etown’s program has risen sharply in recent years with an application increase of 100% from 2021 to 2022. The program is tracking to sustain that increase for 2023 as well.

“Our Public Health programs are thoroughly interdisciplinary and emphasize the College’s mission of ‘Educate for Service,’” Director of Public Health and Lecturer at Elizabethtown College Bob Aronson said.

“Both our Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree and Bachelor of Science (BS) degree expose students to the voices and realities of life in communities of color and underserved communities, as well as global issues that affect populations across the globe. Each provides students with a variety of options for employment or admission to graduate school.”

According to a recent article published by Inside Higher Ed, the pandemic underscored not only the importance of the work but also the dire need for more public health professionals in a time of crisis. 

A national study referenced in the article states that the number of graduates with an undergraduate degree in public health has increased more than 1,100 percent between 2001 and 2020, outpacing master’s degrees as the most popular public health degree by 2020.

Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, Etown’s dynamic Public Health major prepares students for a wide variety of careers for one purpose—to ensure conditions in which people can live healthy lives.

As a highly interdisciplinary major, students take courses in biology, epidemiology, social and behavioral sciences, political science, and communications to learn the skills needed to become changemakers and leaders in their communities. Etown offers two different degrees in Public Health, with two different career path options: a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Public Health and a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Public Health.

Students in the BA program complete courses related to the design and implementation of public health interventions that address the social determinants of health, while students in the BS program study quantitative and biomedical aspects of public health.

Discover more about Etown’s Public Health program at etown.edu or register to visit us for an on-campus Open House on Saturday, April 15.