Engaging Nebraska rural college students and practitioners through a university - community college partnership

Promoting awareness and importance of public health and its career opportunities to freshman and sophomore college students is timely in  planning their educational and professional careers. This pilot project focuses on a partnership between the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health (COPH) and Northeast Community College (NECC). Several educational activities are included: panel discussions on relevant public health issues to NECC faculty, students and members of the surrounding community; guest lectures by COPH faculty in NECC health/science course; and a visit by NECC students to the Medical Center campus.  Public health practitioners, including those affiliated with a NECC Community Health Worker certificate training program  and local health departments, serve on “expert” panels to discuss public health issues relevant to the rural Northeast Nebraska community (county where NECC is located is 98% rural according to the U.S. Census).  These issues include agricultural health; occupational health due to meat packing and other manufacturing industries in the area; food safety; and prevention of obesity, heart disease and other prevalent chronic conditions and access to care for migrant and refugee populations. Exposing students to public health education may increase the likelihood of their recognizing/choosing public health as an alternative to medicine, dentistry, and other traditional professional degrees for which they may not be suited or prepared for.  This project will provide insights into institutional partnerships aimed at student recruitment, engaging the public health practitioners, thus increasing student perceptions of public health careers as real and attainable.