Agnes Scott senior Kaitlyn McCune, who will be the first graduate of the school’s public health program, said she originally wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a surgeon.

However, McCune took genetics class with biology professor Harry Wistrand. In the class McCune said students learned a lot about public health. One thing she learned that fascinated her was the way the public health arena would use the flu virus from the previous season to develop a vaccination in anticipation of the coming flu season.

“I like the idea of preventing the disease rather than reacting to it,” McCune said.

Soon after the genetics course, she changed her minor to public health her sophomore year then changed it to her major her junior year.

The 21-year-old McCune said she was excited to be the first standing graduate of the public health program. She said she had always been interested in the medical field because both of her parents work in it, but college opened her eyes to the disparities in the world and fueled her passion even more.

“Wistrand, who taught McCune, founded the public health program with his colleague, Professor of Anthropology Martha Rees.

Wistrand has been teaching at Agnes Scott for 37 years and said that only lately has he become interested in public health because it crosses many areas of study. He said that since they began offering the major every single course has filled up.

McCune, who has been applying to medical school, echoed Wistrand and said that one of the most unusual things about the program and Agnes Scott in general, was that students had the opportunity to take a variety of classes that fell under one umbrella.

“I think that the thing I love about the program is that it’s so interdisciplinary. I took classes on religion, anthropology as well as biology…the program really lets you take classes from a bunch of other fields,” McCune said.

McCune also said that she though a lot of other doctors don’t get the liberal arts training available at Agnes Scott and in the field of public health. They might not fully understand the culture that that patient comes from, which she said was very important.

“The patient is not just the symptoms they present. It’s a multitude of background information, genetics and cultural information. The thing about public health is that it takes it to a whole [different] level because it’s preventing disease for a population,” McCune said.

Not only is McCune the college’s first Public Health graduate, she is also among the first group of NCAA Division III Lacrosse players at Agnes Scott. McCune has been a defender on Agnes Scott’s Lacrosse team since the program began in 2009.

This story originally appeared in the Champion Free Press Newspaper, September 9, 2011.