Early engagement toward lifetime commitments: Developing transformative undergraduate global health education programs

Undergraduate students are becoming increasingly savvy about pursuing professional goals from the outset of their college experiences. Likewise, many more students are interested in working as agents of change toward creating a society that is one global community and contributing to that community as health professionals. Given the program specificity desired by today's students and the growing need for professionals trained to address health care and policy issues in a global context, universities have the opportunity to respond by developing formal global health education training programs. Students want to prepare for international work as health clinicians, researchers, aid workers, policy makers, epidemiologists, and health educators. To do so adequately, they need to gain knowledge across disciplines so that they have a comprehensive understanding of the factors affecting global health and wellness. By integrating course work in international relations, economics, public health, and international politics into a curriculum along with the basic science courses required for admission to health-related professional schools, institutions of higher learning will be graduating an entirely new type of student. These students will approach health challenges seeking not only to treat a disease and its symptoms, but working to provide culturally competent health interventions to educate populations and prevent the spread of a disease or ongoing health crisis. Undergraduate global health education programs are an important and far-sighted service that universities can offer to shape the health of our increasingly connected world.