Health Education Specialist
Develops programs and communication that help communities make informed health decisions.
Health & Life Sciences
Public Health major, explained.
Improve health by looking beyond one person at a time.
Public health studies how communities prevent disease, promote wellbeing, communicate risk, understand health patterns, and design policies or programs. It draws from epidemiology, statistics, behavioral science, environmental health, communication, and policy.
You might enjoy this if
Notice what feels familiar.
You care about health at the community level.
You like combining science with policy and communication.
You want to understand why health opportunities differ across populations.
The study experience
What the work may feel like.
Programs differ by college. These labels describe common areas of emphasis, not a score or universal rating.
Reading
Frequent
Writing
Frequent
Quantitative work
Frequent
Labs or hands-on work
Some
Design and making
Some
People and collaboration
Frequent
Questions you may keep asking
What is shaping health across this population?
Which prevention strategy is practical and fair?
How should risk be measured and communicated?
EpidemiologyBiostatisticsEnvironmental healthHealth behaviorHealth policy
What can you do with this major?
One major. More than one direction.
These are example connections, not guaranteed outcomes. Many careers welcome more than one major, and some require additional education or licensure.
Epidemiology Assistant
Supports the collection and analysis of information about health patterns.
Community Health Coordinator
Organizes programs, partnerships, outreach, and services around local health needs.
Health Policy Analyst
Studies how laws, systems, funding, and programs affect access and health outcomes.
Public health includes entry-level program and communication roles, while many epidemiology and advanced research positions require graduate study.
Try it before college
Projects that make Public Health more real.
Reading helps you understand a field. A Compass project helps you discover whether you enjoy doing the work.
Each project includes a step-by-step plan, custom AI prompts, reflection guidance, and a finished creation for the student’s portfolio.
See how Compass works
Compass project
30–56 hours
Map a Health Gap in Your Community
Reveal how access to one health-supporting resource changes across neighborhoods or groups.
- You will create
- community health access map and action brief
Compass project
20–42 hours
Make a Health Topic Teen-Proof
Translate one confusing health topic into something accurate, usable, and impossible to mistake for a lecture.
- You will create
- teen health communication campaign
Compass project
30–56 hours
Investigate the Air You Breathe
Measure how air conditions shift across time and place, then explain what the numbers can and cannot tell you.
- You will create
- local air-quality investigation and public guide
Keep exploring
Related majors worth comparing.
Sources and important context
Compass presents a curated collection of 100 widely studied and commonly searched undergraduate majors. The collection is not a statistical ranking. Major names and CIP connections follow common US college usage and the NCES Classification of Instructional Programs. Study patterns are editorial summaries of common program structures and vary by college. Career directions are examples, not guaranteed outcomes. Students should compare actual curricula, admission rules, accreditation, and licensing requirements at colleges they are considering.
NCES CIP codes: 51.2201
- NCES Classification of Instructional ProgramsNational Center for Education Statistics. Official US taxonomy for fields of study and instructional programs.
- Field of DegreeUS Bureau of Labor Statistics. Federal career exploration resources organized around broad college fields.
- O*NET OnLineUS Department of Labor. Detailed descriptions of occupations, tasks, knowledge, skills, and work activities.
Turn this interest into something real.
Explore Compass projects