FYS Fall 2025 College of Health First-Year Student Courses
The following courses offered by the College of Health are open to first-year students (they can also be found online here). Some are major core or distribution classes, and others are electives. Questions about a specific course can be sent to cohadvising@lehigh.edu.
Statistical Literacy in Health
BSTA 005-010 | CRN:13686 | MW | 10:45-12:00 | 3 cr. | Class On-Campus Only
Instructor: Lee, Wayne
Course Description: This course is designed to introduce students with a fear of all things mathematical to the importance of statistics in health research. Students will learn how to read and understand basic statistical concepts and methods used in health research, such as probability, sampling, hypothesis testing, and correlation. Students will also learn to interpret tables and statistical findings in the health literature.
BA Community & Global Health - method requirement option
BA Health, Medicine, & Society - health research methods requirement option
BS Population Health - elective
Frontiers of AI in Health
BSTA 007-010 | CRN:44742 | MW | 1:35-2:50p | 3 cr. | Class On-Campus Only
Instructor: Gogovi, Gideon
Course Description: This course presents a broad contemporary survey of the actual and potential contributions of Artificial Intelligence and Health Data Science in addressing public health challenges. By reading recent articles that describe case studies of AI in health and healthcare and by engaging in discussions both in class and online, students will come to appreciate the many unsolved problems in public health and how one may evaluate the potential benefits and risks of exciting new data-centric solutions made possible by AI.
BS Biostatistics & Health Data Science - requirement option
BA Community & Global Health - elective
BS Population Health - elective
The Art of AI Conversation: Prompting GPT and Its Peers
BSTA 008-010 | CRN:45754 | MW | 12:10-1:25p | 3 cr. | Class On-Campus Only
Instructor: Khan, Bilal
Course Description: This introductory course explores Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Claude, emphasizing effective prompt engineering and critical evaluation of AI-generated content. Students will learn how to formulate queries, assess outputs, and refine prompts while addressing ethical and domain-specific challenges. Using health-related examples, the focus is on general, cross-disciplinary interactive AI methods, not computer science or software development. Students will learn to use AI dialogue systems responsibly and creatively, with an understanding of the tradeoffs of various prompting techniques.
BA Community & Global Health - elective
BS Population Health - elective
Community Health
CGH 001-010 | CRN: 43481 | TR | 10:45a-12:00p | Class On-Campus Only | 3 cr.
Instructor: Jackson, Kate
Course Description: The interdisciplinary field of community health focuses on improving the health of communities through health promotion and disease prevention, education, policy development, and community empowerment. This course provides students with an overview of theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of community health with a focus on working in diverse communities. Students will gain an understanding of how community-level health issues relate to broader contextual issues within the community and externally.
BA Community & Global Health - requirement
BA Health, Medicine, & Society - public health requirement option
BS Population Health - elective
Introduction to LGBTQ+ Health
CGH 002-010 | CRN: 44993 | TR | 9:20-10:35a | Class On-Campus Only | 3 cr. | Pre–req CGH 001 or POPH 001
Instructor: Mohammed Jibriel
Course Description: This course introduces students to the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) populations in the United States and globally. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the course focuses on determinants of health, LGBTQ+ health disparities, the history of LGBTQ+ health, and major health issues faced by LGBTQ+ people across the lifespan. Students explore individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy influences on LGBTQ+ health, as well as LGBTQ+- affirming health policies, programs, and services. Attribute: DEIN
DEI Distribution option
BA Community & Global Health - elective
BS Population Health-elective
Introduction to Global Health
CGH 004-011 | CRN: 45304 | MW | 3:00-4:15p | Class On-Campus Only | 3 cr.
Instructor: Liguori, Krista
Course Description: In this course, students will receive an introduction to global population health. We begin with an analysis of the rise of the international community in addressing population health needs and the international norms guiding healthcare delivery systems. We will also focus on healthcare delivery systems, innovations, and policy reforms in response to healthcare needs in several developing nations. Finally, students will understand the political, social, and more recent commercial determinants of population health in these countries.
BA Community & Global Health - requirement
BA Health, Medicine, & Society - public health requirement option
BS Population Health - elective
Introduction to Programming with Python
CSE 012-011 | CRN: 45543 | MW | 7:55-9:10a | Class On-Campus Only | 3 cr.
Instructor: Adjunct/New COH Faculty
Course Description: Fundamental concepts of computing and "computational thinking": problem analysis, abstraction, algorithms, digital representation of information, and networks. Concepts of software development using the Python language.
BS Biostatistics & Health Data Science - requirement
First-year Seminar
HLTH 090-010 | CRN: 45656 | TR | 7:55-9:10a | Class On-Campus Only | 3 cr.
HLTH 090-011 | CRN: 45657 | TR | 7:55-9:10a | Class On-Campus Only | 3 cr.
HLTH 090-012 | CRN: 45658 | TR | 7:55-9:10a | Class On-Campus Only | 3 cr.
Instructor: Varied Teaching Assistants
Course Description: First-year seminar for College of Health students. Topics vary.
Requirement for all first-year students
Introduction to Population and Public Health
POPH 001-010 | CRN: 43141 | TR | 1:35-2:50p | Class On-Campus Only | 4 cr.
Instructor: Delmelle, Eric
POPH 001-011 | CRN: 45604 | TR | 3:00-4:15p | Class On-Campus Only | 4 cr.
Instructor: Adjunct Faculty
Course Description: Despite significant advances in medicine and public health, inequities in health persist. Understanding health on a population level is an approach that seeks to improve the health of the whole population, unravel variations in health outcomes, and to identify effective strategies for reducing or eliminating inequities. The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of: 1) how population and public health are defined and measured; and 2) the determinants of population health.
BS Biostatistics & Health Data Science - requirement
BA Community & Global Health - elective
BA Health, Medicine, & Society - public health requirement option
BS Population Health - requirement
Population Health Research Methods & Application
POPH 002-010 | CRN: 44126 | TR | 12:10-1:25p | Class On-Campus Only | 4 cr. | Preq: POPH 001
Instructor: Wakeel, Fathima
Course Description: This course provides students with fundamental principles of research methods relevant to population health and the translation of research into practice. Through this course, we will review a range of study designs, including experimental and observational studies, mixed methods, and comparative qualitative case study methods. In addition, students will obtain the skills needed to translate research into practice for multiple stakeholder groups.
BS Biostatistics & Health Data Science - requirement
BA Community & Global Health - elective
BS Population Health - requirement
First-Year Student Courses Outside of the College of Health
Students are encouraged to take courses outside the college and will need to if they plan to take pre-health courses and to complete the first-year writing (WRT) distribution requirements (WRT 001 or ENGL 003). Some classes will have a lecture and a lab, or a recitation. Recitations are smaller subsets of the larger lecture designed to provide time for small-group discussion and problem-solving.
When planning your schedule, if a course has several sections, it’s a good idea to have another option in case your first choice is full. As a reminder, unless you received transfer credit for it from an AP exam or other source, all College of Health students will have to take WRT 001 in their first semester.