November 20, 2024 - Following an underground mine tour, students from West Virginia University gained a new understanding of the public health industry and felt inspired for their future careers.

WVU School of Public Health students Katelyn Eaves and Hannah Warden and Dr. Tim Bruehwiler, a resident in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency program, recently visited the underground coal mine owned by Iron Senergy, a privately-owned independent energy company, giving them a hands-on look into the occupational and environmental safety aspects of public health. During the tour, the students were able to operate coal mining machinery and learn from tour leaders about their careers, health outcomes of miners and equipment use.

“Katelyn and I both agreed that we learned and experienced more than we expected to,” Warden said. “Our three tour leaders provided so much knowledge and created an environment where we could ask any question.”

Warden, a junior in the accelerated Bachelor’s to Master of Health Administration program, found the experience to be eye-opening, especially given her family background in the coal mining industry and her experiences interning at Cabin Creek Health Systems shadowing black lung disease exposure testing.

“Coming from a family with a rich history of working in the coal mining industry, I have always had an interest for health outcomes for those working in high-exposure areas of coal dust,” she said. “The School of Public Health continually seeks opportunities to support my passions for serving rural and labor-intensive populations by providing opportunities to see health disparities in a hands-on environment.”

Unlike Warden, Eaves did not grow up with an understanding of coal mining, but she was familiar with the occupational health and safety industry. Reflecting on the trip, she says she has a better understanding of the coal mining industry and safety knowledge.

“Getting to go on this trip and get that in-person experience has provided an even better understanding to my foundation of safety knowledge,” Eaves, a senior studying public health sciences, said. “Miners are a large and vulnerable population in terms of workplace hazards. It is not everyday that someone can say they have gotten to go underground into the mines and see the important work that is being done.”

Experiences like the tour allow School of Public Health students to see what they learn in the classroom applied to the real world. The School’s location, alone, offers WVU students this unique opportunity to study public health issues firsthand and gain cross-disciplinary exposure while in school. The institutional network also allows the School of Public Health to build and maintain partnerships with local and state health departments and federal research institutes, including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

WVU is also home to the West Virginia Prevention Research Center, one of only 26 Prevention Research Centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Office of Health Services Research and the only Occupational Medicine residency program in the Appalachian region. WVU Health Sciences also serves as the headquarters for the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health.