Why major in Health Humanities?
Health Humanities prepares students for a broad range of careers in the healthcare industry and beyond. This is an interdisciplinary major that explores questions and issues related to health and illness from multiple perspectives. It will help you develop an understanding of the influence of cultural, social, political, and economic contexts on health, healthcare, and medicine.
Your experience as a Health Humanities major
Through experiential learning, internship opportunities, and interesting coursework, you will learn to develop creative solutions to healthcare issues affecting individuals and the greater community, and you will lay the foundation for a career in any aspect of the healthcare industry.
Students should expect to take courses in a range of areas, such as communications, the arts, philosophy, English, science, social science, history, and other fields with a focus on health and healthcare.
Career paths for Health Humanities majors
Our HHUM degree has both a B.A. and a B.S. option and lots of flexibility in how you fulfill the requirements. We've designed it to prepare students for a wide range of jobs across the healthcare sector, including careers as a physician, nurse, or other clinical practitioner, healthcare administrator, analyst, or marketer, and many more. Health Humanities is increasingly popular nationally, with great potential for growth in job opportunities. Check out this article for ideas about potential careers and starting salaries.
I’ve always been interested in the sciences, and I plan to apply to medical school and become a pediatrician. I believe the Health Humanities major... will help me be more interactive with patients and their families and loved ones.
The Health Humanities major combines my interest in the humanities and arts with my goal of becoming an obstetrician/gynecologist. In my work, I’ll be dealing with people and really sensitive topics and emotions, so I believe that this major will support me in that aspect of my work.
Related Graduate Programs
Penn State Abington is happy to announce a partnership with Delaware Valley University for students to complete a 4+1 accelerated master's degree in healthcare administration!
Students graduating with our Health Humanities major may be interested in the following programs at University Park.
- Masters in Health Policy and Administration
- Masters in Public Health
- Other graduate degrees at Penn State College of Health and Human Development
- Other graduate degrees at Penn State College of Medicine
Related Internships
The Philadelphia area has many internship opportunities for Health Humanities students, including with major healthcare organizations such as Penn Medicine, Jefferson Health, the Red Cross, IBX, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and others. Talk with your advisor about completing a 3-credit exploratory internship (HHUM 495), which is a great way to gain job experience while earning credit!
