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Benefits of a Study Abroad Element in the Environmental Health Curriculum

Abstract

Most populations now derive benefits as well as risks from a global economy. Local environmental health can be impacted positively through importation or adoption of foreign technological advances, administrative approaches, and cultural attributes, to name only a few. Similarly, risks are now commonly shared on an international scale, as illustrated by cross-border food source contamination, emerging or recognized disease spread, unchecked international pollution, and a host of other incidents in recent years. Beyond the case study, historical record of the textbook approach, affordable study abroad programs now exist to more concretely educate students about such impacts. Once considered simply a perquisite for more financially able students, or a requirement for language arts students, both short- and long-term study abroad programs increasingly add a necessary global perspective to the college environmental health graduate. This special report details the ways in which a number of accredited programs are using and integrating study abroad experiences into their curriculums to better prepare their graduates to meet the international environmental health and safety challenges of the 21st century.

Author

  • Timothy J. Ryan, PhD, CIH, CSP, Ohio University
Volume#: 80.1
Page #: 30-33
Publication Month: July/August 2017

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