The students were part of a 12-day road trip tour of the Southeast, winding from Birmingham to nine different sites across Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia to see public health professionals in action and learn about the history of their field.

Stops on the tour included: a former tuberculosis sanitarium in Mississippi; the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina caused lasting public health impacts; the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta; and a site in Baxterville, Miss., where the U.S. government detonated two nuclear weapons underground in the 1960s.

Lisa McCormick, associate professor at UAB's School of Public Health, said she planned the trip to give students a broad view of the many different types of public health jobs and operations out there, and what it's like to actually do those jobs for a living.

"Students learn a lot of information in the classroom, but sometimes it really doesn't sink in until they get into the communities and see it and talk to public health professionals, people who have been working in the field for years," McCormick said.

"That's what we're trying to give them is that 'Ah-ha' moment where they are able to relate what they've been learning in the classroom to public health practice and working in the communities."