Learn more about what motivates current Michigan Public Health online students

Michigan Public Health students come from a variety of backgrounds, but all are driven by a collective mission to help people and improve overall public health. Michigan Public Health students are innovators and collaborators; they come to Michigan knowing the School of Public Health provides its students with the knowledge and training that will allow them to make a real impact. 

Students like Dr. Robert Davidson want to create positive change with their Master of Public Health degree. He says “I would like to positively impact the health of larger populations of people compared with the one-on-one role I have played throughout my medical career. I want to build a foundation of public health over the next two years [in this master’s program] to make me a better advocate for policies that improve the health of populations.”

Current students in the online MPH and MS degree programs have been excited to share their motivations to pursue graduate work with Michigan Public Health. Many also note the ways in which they’ve already seen benefits in their careers and personal life as they move through their coursework. If you’ve ever considered earning your degree in public health, you might find that their stories are not that different from your own. Learn more about the many paths to public health our students have taken in the articles featured here: 

Read about Hanady D, an online MPH student who has been an infectious disease physician for the last 18 years, but chose to pursue her MPH because “you realize that as a physician, you cannot really be disconnected from the other services that can eventually influence the outcome of your patient. You really have to be engaged in terms of their social situation.”

Hear from Chris C, an online MPH student who became interested in public health when he started to recognize some of the disparities in care within his own community. He explains, “too often, if you’re at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, you do not get the same care as others because of income, race, or other factors. If you’re not some ‘preferred’ group, you’re not given access to the same level of care and I’d just like to be able to fix things like that.”

Chris R, an online MPH student has used his background as a nurse to inform his study of public health. Chris notes that “public health shares a lot with nursing. Nurses have that up-close relationship, and public health professionals—[which includes] many nurses—have a wider view. Nurses are taught more and more to see the “big” pictures [of overall health care]—population health, reducing unit waste through better practices, being mindful of key performance indicators in health care.”

Michigan’s School of Public Health has two online degree options: the online Master of Public Health in Population and Health Sciences degree and the Master of Science in Population and Health Sciences degree.

Both degrees in Population and Health Sciences share an emphasis on providing students with a foundational public health education. This generalist approach allows them to address complex challenges and pursue innovative, lasting solutions to improve the health of communities. At the core of the Population and Health Sciences curriculum is an aim to strengthen a population-level approach to today’s pressing public health issues. 

Read more about the differences between the MPH and MS and find out which program is right for you here.

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