Need for Public Health Education in High Schools

• Youth should gain exposure to the skills of population thinking through public health education. However, it has yet to become an essential component of high school curricula.
• High school public health education will focus on critical thinking, science and digital literacy, youth empowerment, and community-based participatory action research in each community.
• Youth will learn the importance of how to acquire, analyze, evaluate, interpret, and apply information to understand societal problems in a real-world context. It also helps to cultivate a sense of social responsibility to address community health needs.
• This model can create triple benefits of being an educational institution, a well-being hub connecting young people to services, and as an enabler for health-related engagement.

The initiative is built upon the relevance of transforming ideas into implementation for solving pressing public health challenges of the 21st century through Research, Entrepreneurship, Analytics, Informatics and Management, (RE-AIM).

To build an impactful SPH that is: Community-engaged, Anchor institute, Research-based solutions, promote Entrepreneurship and Innovation and support Student Centeredness (SPH-CARES).

This initiative aims to instill Leadership and Educational Advancement among youths to solve Public Health (LEAP) challenges of the 21st century. The initiative is built on 4 Pillars: Coping, Adaptability, Resilience and Empathy (CARE).

Ashish Joshi, PhD, MBBS, MPH | Dean & Distinguished University Professor