Class act

After talking to and working with a variety of schools and programs of public health, I’ve gotten a sense of what students across the country are doing to promote this year’s National Public Health Week. Below are just a few examples of what students are doing to play their part in fighting climate change.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md.

• The school’s curriculum includes multiple classes related to climate change, including a sustainability seminar, and classes on the global climate and public health. The MPH program also has a new concentration in climate change and sustainability.
• Johns Hopkins, as an institution, has pledged to go green (sustainability, not just carbon neutrality) and is taking positive steps toward this goal.
• Students participated in Focus the Nation’s interactive webcast, ”The 2% Solution.”
• The student health and human rights group has sponsored multiple speakers on the topic.

Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, Ga.

Themes and planning committees have been organized for each day of National Public Health Week, and activities will include hosting a live “Inconvenient Truth” speaker on Monday night, working to make an administration picnic sustainable and organizing competitive events between departments.

Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa.

Students will send out daily topical e-mails to the entire university community during National Public Health Week, conduct outreach to local middle schools with presentations and activities about climate change, and partner with the Drexel University panel program, “Your Health, Your Home, Your Neighborhood.”

Is there something going on to fight climate change at your school that you want to share? Post a comment below to let everyone know what your campus is doing and how other schools might replicate it!

Tamar Klaiman, MPH
APHA Student Assembly Chair