I love Goshen because of the diversity and care the students have for each other. It became another home from my home. Goshen has helped me build strength and understanding those around me, and helped me understand my future career.
Public Health
Major | Minor
Health starts long before anyone walks into a clinic.
Learn care at the scale of a community.
Public health is the work of keeping whole communities well. It asks why some neighborhoods thrive while others struggle and what it takes to close that gap. The answers are rarely medical alone. They live in housing, food, transportation, in what a school teaches and what a city budget funds, in who gets heard when decisions are made.
At Goshen College you’ll learn how health is shaped by the places people live in and the systems around them. You’ll study alongside nursing students in the Center for Nursing and Public Health, on a campus that has been teaching health professionals for more than 70 years. You’ll take that learning into the field before you graduate.
Is Public Health Right for You?
Staying close counts as belonging. Many students come from Indiana counties within an easy drive to campus, so you can stay near the people who matter and still build toward a real career, with advising, mentorship and tutoring to help you finish. International students join study-abroad cohorts and global health coursework in a small, values-centered community where people look out for each other.
What You’ll Study
Both major and minor paths combine interdisciplinary courses in biology, sociology, psychology and global studies. You’ll explore the social, behavioral, environmental and biological factors that shape health outcomes in communities around the world. The program sits close to Goshen College’s flagship nursing program and other health-related majors, so collaboration and interdisciplinary research are built in. You’ll also learn to promote health equity, address disparities and improve community wellness through prevention and education.
You’ll study in the newly renovated Center for Nursing and Public Health, the same building the nursing program calls home, making collaboration and connection easy. You will also complete an internship or research project, so you graduate with field experience, not just credit hours.
Where you’ll do the work
- Internships that place you in real organizations:
- Goshen Health, local nonprofits, and public service organizations around Elkhart County
- Community research with a partner:
- Projects run through the Center for Community Engagement, on food systems, environmental health, and health disparities
- Global health in context:
- Study abroad that puts you in a different health system, not just a different country
You’ll build the skills the field actually hires for such as advocacy, outreach, data collection, and program evaluation and you’ll learn them in modern science labs, community health clinics, and the real settings our local health partners open up to us.
Ru Sung '26
Public Health Graduate
What It Costs and How to Pay for It
Every public health student is encouraged to apply for Goshen College’s general financial aid, which includes need-based aid, academic awards and state programs like the Frank O’Bannon Grant and 21st Century Scholars for eligible Indiana residents.
To see your own price after aid, run the net price calculator or explore your options at the financial aid and scholarships pages.
Common Questions About the Public Health Major
Public health looks at health at the population level, why whole communities get sick or stay well, rather than treating individual patients the way nursing does or focusing on individual casework the way social work does. It’s a better fit if you’re drawn to prevention, policy and systems rather than direct clinical care.
Graduates work as public health educators, epidemiologists, community health workers, health policy analysts, global health specialists, environmental health coordinators and nonprofit program managers. Many also pursue graduate study in public health, medicine, social work or healthcare administration.
Yes. The major’s foundation in epidemiology, community health and required fieldwork lines up directly with what Master of Public Health programs expect incoming students to already understand, and Goshen faculty can help you identify which MPH programs fit your specific interests.
With 91% of classes under 30 students, public health faculty know your specific community-health interests well enough to help match you to a fieldwork placement that fits your goals, then mentor you through it personally instead of handing you off to a general career-services office. That kind of individual guidance connects the epidemiology and community-health concepts you’re learning in class directly to the real fieldwork you’re doing before graduation.
Every public health student completes an internship or a research project before graduating. Recent students have completed placements with community clinics, local nonprofits and health departments across Elkhart County. This includes internships at organizations like The Window, a non-for-profit in Goshen that provides food and locates shelter for the homeless.
Jewel Yoder
Professor of Nursing
Department ChairSister Veronica Adeduro
Associate Professor of Nursing
Hilary Arroyo
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Amanda Borden
Assisant Professor of Public Health
Deena Brissett
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Cheryl Caffee
Associate Professor of Nursing
Andrew Clouse
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Brianna Conery
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Beth Miller
Professor of Nursing
Katie Schramm
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Susan Setiawan
Professor of Nursing
Jennifer Van Fleet
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Randi Warren
Teaching Faculty
