Teaching epidemiology at liberal arts colleges

The 2003 Institute of Medicine report, “Who Will Keep the Public Healthy”, stated that “all undergraduates should have access to education in public health.” While many institutions have advanced this cause in the past 7 years, opportunities for education in public health at liberal arts colleges remain relatively limited. While liberal arts colleges are generally populated by students who are very receptive to public health ideas, a number of challenges exist in reaching them. Here I discuss the challenges faced in teaching Epidemiology at two different liberal arts institutions. Helping highly active and involved students ‘find the time' for public health, finding a department to ‘fit into', and striking the right balance between quantitative reasoning and core epidemiologic competencies are examples of obstacles I'll discuss. Once these are overcome, the advantages of teaching public health related courses at a liberal arts college are readily apparent. Small class sizes allow naturally occurring discussions to take place, projects can be introduced into the course, student presentations become feasible, and more hands on activities can be incorporated. The result is that a new population of students discover (and ideally become excited about!) a field to which they had been previously unexposed. Successful and ‘not-so-successful' activities will be highlighted.