Global Health Courses

If you're adventurous, passionate about making a difference in the world, and committed to helping others, you might want to consider a career in global health. With a global health degree, you'll work with vulnerable populations around the world and look for ways to use education, research, and policy to enhance health. You can specialize in areas like hygiene, nutrition, diagnostics, maternal and child health, or vaccines. Or, you can focus on specific diseases like HIV/AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, or epidemic disease. No matter what you choose, the work is meaningful and rewarding. Traits that can help you along the way include initiative, good interpersonal skills, adaptability, and a strong work ethic.‎

If you decide to go into global health, you can take a variety of career paths. Program managers create operational guidelines for global health programs associated with nonprofit organizations, governments, and private companies. Global health consultants look at how health programs are run and come up with ways to improve them. When there is an outbreak of infectious disease, epidemiologists search for a cause, identify at-risk populations, and look for ways to control spread. Global health educators teach people, families, and communities how to improve health and wellness. Policy analysts study how the policies of a global health program affect an organization and the community it serves.‎

Places that hire people with a global health background include large national or worldwide agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO). Additional places you can work with a global health degree include non-profit and private businesses, domestic or foreign governments, pharmaceutical companies, colleges or universities, hospitals or clinics, and public relations firms.‎

You can study a number of different topics related to global health, such as global studies, foreign language, medicine, international relations, public policy, project management, or education.‎