Importance of service learning experiences in undergraduate public health education

Public health education is a natural fit for unique learning experiences beyond basic classroom lectures. Service related learning experiences provide opportunities for students to explore cultural interactions and gain skills that would otherwise be difficult to gain through learning only in the classroom. This qualitative study of four service related experiences, two international and two domestic, offers a framework from which the importance of cultural interaction in public health education can be understood. Through interviews and surveys of participants of each of these programs, the strengths and weaknesses of each opportunity highlight the qualities of the most successful organizations and programs for an undergraduate public health education. Specifically, students will be asked to evaluate the degree to which the programs offered students time interacting directly with the members of another culture whom they were serving, and whether or not the program promoted reflection and discussion by the participants (before, during and after their experience). Finally, participants will describe how the experience encouraged them to practice real world skills that apply to a career in the field of public health and the way in which their service experience related to their undergraduate curriculum. It is hypothesized that the participants of the programs with all four of these qualities will possess the best understanding of the culture-based skills. An undergraduate public health program can more effectively implement opportunities that encourage thinking globally and acting locally when students, faculty and administrators possess a greater understanding of the qualities of an educational service experience.