Rutgers School of Public Health to Offer Two Unique Global Courses Summer of 2024

The Rutgers School of Public Health’s Office for Global Programs, led by Marian Passannante, senior associate dean for educational and global program development, is offering two unique global education opportunities this summer.

Passannante sat down with one of the school’s writers to discuss the courses, as well as, how undergraduate and graduate students from across the university can register by March 1, 2024.

What courses are being offered this summer?

The Office for Global Programs is excited to offer Food Systems for Sustainability and Migration in the European Context: Challenges for Public Health in the summer of 2024.

Food Systems for Sustainability, is being held between June 10 to 21 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The course will provide in-depth knowledge and analysis of how food system transformations can support shifts towards sustainable diets. Using a systems approach, students will learn how food is produced within various production schemes and how it moves through long and short food value chains. Students will also learn how food systems can be leveraged to promote good nutrition, health, and sustainability.

Migration in the European Context: Challenges for Public Health, is being held between July 6 and 20, in Athens and Lesvos, Greece. The course will provide students with a broad spectrum of theoretical knowledge on issues related to migrants’ health and related policies in a European context. The 2015 migration crisis in Greece will serve as the background “scene.” The course will also provide an opportunity for students to be in the field and interact with those who provide health care to newly arrived migrants and refugees on the island of Lesvos, one of the entry points in Greece. What makes me most excited about the migration course is that students will learn to build a comprehensive multi-sectorial approach to issues related to migrant and refugee health.

You can learn more about both global courses here.

What makes these courses unique?

Food Systems for Sustainability course provides the unique opportunity for students to get a global experience without traveling abroad! While working on developing the Rutgers School of Public Health’s global course offerings, we heard that many students would love to study abroad, but don’t have the ability to do so between work and other commitments. We really wanted to provide a global perspective to all, which is our office’s mission, so we developed a course where we host international students from Greece! Rutgers will welcome 16 students from Harokopio University in Greece, who will take the course with 16 Rutgers University students.

The Migration in the European Context course is unique in that students will have the opportunity to learn both in the classroom and on the ground from those who are working to assist migrants and refugees. This type of opportunity just doesn’t exist in our usual Rutgers School of Public Health classrooms. Students who have taken this course in the past have called it “life changing.”

Who is eligible to register for these courses?

Upper level undergraduate and graduate Rutgers University students are eligible to register for both courses!

Where can students learn more and register for courses?

Students interested in the Food Systems for Sustainability course can apply here.

Students interested in the Migration in the European Context: Challenges for Public Health course can apply here.

For more information, students can reach out to the Rutgers School of Public Health’s Office for Global Programs officeofgp@sph.rutgers.edu.

Applications for both courses are being accepted through March 1, 2024.