HERSHEY, Pa. — Students from the Penn State Global Health Exchange Program met with representatives of the Wolf administration to discuss the importance of public health in Pennsylvania.  

Students met with Pennsylvania Department of Health officials, learning about health priorities across the Commonwealth, including the opioid crisis, Lyme disease, medical marijuana, childhood obesity and emergency preparedness.

“In our dynamic, universal society, public health decisions made on a local and state level can have major ramifications internationally,” said Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine. “We are committed to improving public health in Pennsylvania and providing education on its importance. Sitting down with international students to discuss public health topics in Pennsylvania provides insight that our concerns here in the U.S. are similar to those in their home countries.”

The Penn State Global Health Exchange Program is hosted by the Department of Public Health Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine. Students from Taiwan Medical University, China Medical University, and the University of West Indies-Cave Hill in Barbados also toured the Department of Health and met with state policymakers.

In its third year, the program is a collaboration between Penn State and international academic institutions to help understand public health issues globally. The program’s goal is to establish a two-way educational opportunity that provides a framework in which students explore public health issues from a global perspective.