The Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto will offer an immersive two-day workshop where LBD students explore real-world public health issues and discover career opportunities in the field.
Through hands-on activities, interactive demonstrations, and conversations with experts, students will explore how public health protects communities, prevents disease, and shapes the systems we rely on every day. From the opening ice-breaker to the final debate, participants will be actively engaged—thinking critically, solving problems, and discovering how public health connects to careers across science, medicine, policy, and community leadership.
Day 1 builds a strong foundation. Students begin the day with an introduction to the field of public health and the many careers within it, followed by a fast-paced scenario challenge that shows how public health professionals respond to real situations. In the afternoon, a guest speaker then leads an epidemiology workshop where students learn how diseases spread, what terms like incidence, prevalence, and R₀ mean, and how to interpret outbreak data. Working in teams, students analyze real-world data to uncover patterns and make evidence-based decisions—skills at the heart of health science careers.
Day 2 pushes students further into the social and systemic dimensions of health. In the morning session, students learn about the social determinants of health, helping them understand why some communities face greater health risks than others. Students then map how health systems respond to public health challenges and work in groups to design their own action plans using systems thinking. The workshop concludes with an ethical dilemma debate and a career reflection session that highlights the many pathways into public health.
By the end of the two days, students leave with new skills, new confidence, and a clearer sense of how they can shape healthier futures for their communities—and for the world.