2014 Alumni-Student Mixer
Community
Public health is at the very heart of a healthy, enriched, and thriving community. OPHS has a strong history of service activities that address the needs of the community as it relates to the program’s mission and values. Ho‘olohe--to listen and respond to the needs of our community--is one of the values of the program.
There are several ways that the Office of Public Health Studies specifically engages in an active and healthy exchange with community members and their organizations, including: 1) community service, 2) service learning, and 3) community workforce trainings and development. Public health faculty members and students engage in many community service efforts and projects and many MPH practicum placements have involved beneficial placements of service learning exchanges in community organizations. Furthermore, OPHS has actively led the public health workforce development in Hawai‘i and the Pacific. OPHS members have co-sponsored many trainings, conferences, webinars, and capacity-building activities with help of the Hawai‘i Public Health Training Hui (collaboration). OPHS also has a Continuing Education Coordinator who works with, and is the current president of, the Hawai‘i Public Health Training Hui (HPHTH).
In addition, the majority of our graduates are local students who are studying specifically to enter or re-enter the Hawaiʻi community and its public health workforce upon graduation. Many of our students from other Pacific island locations (e.g. Guam and Saipan) are here to earn a degree and return home to their communities. For our graduates, the UH School of Public Health Alumni Association (UHSPHAA) provides an opportunity for alumni to remain connected to our OPHS 'ohana.