Each year on Nov. 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention celebrates One Health Day. This global campaign brings attention to the health concerns of people, animals and the environment, and how they are all related to one another.
And since 2020, the MSU Global Health Studies Program shines a light on this interrelatedness every day through an online academic setting.
“You do not have to have a background in health to be successful in this program,” said Rebecca A. Malouin, Global Health Studies director. “While developing the program, we thought about students planning for professional school, taking a gap year, looking for a change in profession and international students who are interested in global health.”
Collaboration makes the MSU Global Health Studies Program work
“I think of this program like an MBA because this is a general degree that could apply to people from many different backgrounds who want to work in a wide variety of areas,” Malouin said.
Academically housed in the College of Osteopathic Medicine with administrative responsibilities in the MSU Institute for Global Health, the program includes faculty from across the university.
Eight different colleges are currently represented in the curriculum, including the College of Osteopathic Medicine, College of Human Medicine, College of Communication Arts and Sciences, College of Arts and Letters, College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, College of Nursing and International Studies and Programs. Global health practitioners also participate as faculty, as do international colleagues.
Malouin said she is always looking for ways to collaborate with other programs across the university and new courses to offer.
“This is an asynchronous online program,” Malouin said. “Students can earn a Master of Science in Global Health degree or a graduate certificate. So far, we’ve had students who are lawyers, physicians, hospital administrators, teachers, nurses, social workers and members of the military. We even have one student from the World Health Organization who already is doing the work that many of our students aspire to do.”
As part of the MSU Institute for Global Health, the MSU Global Health Studies Program offers 17 different study abroad programs in 11 different countries. Right now, the Institute for Global Health offers international opportunities to more than 100 students a year from a variety of academic programs, including the Master of Science in Global Health.
The program is built on the competencies recommended by the Consortium of Universities for Global Health and has benefitted from learning from and collaborating with other online programs at MSU, especially the Master of Public Health program, Malouin explained.