The incoming class of graduate students to the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health include 97 master of public health (MPH) students; 20 doctoral students and two master of science (MS) students.
The faculty and staff of the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health extend a warm welcome to incoming and returning students.
The beginning fall semester brings 119 new graduate students to campus and 70 to the online master of public health (MPH) program.
The on-campus student ranks include 97 MPH students; 20 doctoral students and two master of science (MS) students.
Diversity of origin, languages spoken and backgrounds continues to be demonstrated by incoming public health students. Collectively, the new class cites proficiencies in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German Greek, Modern, Gujarati, Haitian French Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Lingala, Mongolian, Oriya, Panjabi, Persian, Russian, Sign Languages, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Countries of origin include, Cameroon, China, The Congo, Kenya, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, United States and Vietnam.
Within the incoming MPH class, 19% are first generation college students and 42% are first in their families to attend graduate school. Of the MS/Doctoral group, however, 42% were first generation college students and 45% are the first in their families to attend graduate school. The average age of MPH students is 25.8 years and 28.9 years for the MS/Doctoral group.
The college is fortunate to have three Fulbright scholars among the new crop of MPH students. All three Fulbright scholars are particularly interested in understanding how to develop and use global alliances to improve health conditions in their countries.
Kiran John Sardar, a dentist from Pakistan, is studying Global Health and hopes to incorporate concepts of prevention to bring about a more holistic approach to dental health in Pakistan.
Amarsanaa Byambadorj, who is also a student in the Global Health concentration, is interested in taking back the knowledge and experiences she will gain in the program to her home country of Mongolia, where she hopes to work to better the education system.
Joy Luzingu, a physician who hails from The Democratic Republic of Congo, is in the first class of students in the One Health concentration. Joy’s specific interests lie in developing a research career that focuses on treating non-communicable and emerging diseases, through which he can train future generations of Congolese researchers.
New students in the online MPH program represent a wide U.S. geographic diversity. While 51% of the incoming online cohort hails from Arizona, the following other states are represented: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington.
